Storyline
When a young woman unexpectedly arrives at an older man's workplace, looking for answers, the secrets of the past threaten to unravel his new life. Their confrontation will uncover buried memories and unspeakable desires. It will shake them both to the core.
Cast: Ruby Stokes -
Young Una
Rooney Mara -
Una
David Shields -
Man in Nightclub
Ben Mendelsohn -
Ray
Tara Fitzgerald -
Andrea
Madeleine Brolly -
Courtroom Clerk
Richard Cunningham -
Prosecutor
Gary Finnerty -
Truck Driver
Riz Ahmed -
Scott
Maciej Krupianik -
Foreman
Mandy Surridge -
Picnic Mum
Xanthe Gibson -
Leah
CiarĂ¡n McMenamin -
John
Katie Money -
Gemma
Poppy Corby-Tuech -
Poppy
Country: UK, Canada, USA
Language: English
Release Date: 3 Jan 2016
Filming Locations: Camberley, Surrey, England, UK
Opening Weekend: €8,959
(Portugal)
(10 September 2017)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
It is based on the play Blackbird by David Harrower. See more »
Quotes:
User Review
Author:
Rating: 7/10
Conventional genre movies work their magic almost entirely through
manipulating stereotypes. But many powerful movies work in reverse:
they deconstruct stereotypes to challenge our boundary perceptions.
Themes like feminism, racism and nationalism, are regularly pulled
apart to see what makes them tick. In recent years, child sexual abuse
has been in the spotlight and it is overwhelmingly treated as a moral
absolute. However, the film Una (2016) challenges the norm by exploring
ambivalences in a case of blatant abuse. In doing so, it places the
audience squarely on the judge's bench.
Adapted from the acclaimed 2005 stage play Blackbird, this tense
drama-thriller explores the moral ambiguities of a criminal act that
occurred 15 years ago between 40-year old Ray (Ben Mendelsohn) and
13-year old Una (Mara Rooney). The emotionally immature Ray was
obsessed with the lonely and precocious Una over a three-month
relationship before having 'consensual' sex with her. By chance, the
incident was discovered and he spent four years in jail. Since then he
changed his name and has tried to restore his life. Meanwhile Una's
world spiralled into an emotional void. Now 28, she has tracked him
down and unexpectedly confronts him at the factory where he works.
Instead of attacking him for the abuse, she demands to know why he
abandoned her after their one night together. They continue talking
beyond the factory's closing time, then she tricks another employee to
take her to Ray's home where his girlfriend is hosting a party. At this
point, the intensity of the factory scenes becomes diluted and the
sparring inconclusive.
This is an explosive mix of issues, personality and circumstance. The
film consists mostly of their verbal sparring about the illegal
'affair' with dialogue ranging from hysterical, passionate to icy cool
within an industrial setting that is claustrophobic and alienating. It
is beyond Ray's emotional capacity to understand what Una wants, while
she vacillates between wanting to restore her juvenile obsession with
him and wanting to see him wallow in guilt for his crime. Every time we
feel contempt for him, we see a piece of the emotional puzzle
indicating human weakness but not evil. Every time we admire Una's
determination to hold Ray to account, we see a glimpse of her
complicity and manipulation. Mara Rooney and Ben Mendelsohn fill their
characters with confusion and remorse. At the same time, they depict
genuine emotional connection with each other despite the legal,
emotional and moral prohibitions that still frame their lives. Their
performances are brilliant.
At one level, this film is about the horrendous impact on victims and
the abrogation of responsibility that occurs in cases of child sexual
abuse. At another, it pulls apart the stereotype of victim and abuser
to shed light on how it can happen and its painful aftermath. Some
audiences may be repulsed at the level of sympathy shown to the
perpetrator and the implicit sharing of responsibility between a
juvenile and an adult for what is entirely an adult crime. Others may
be shaken by the idea that such crimes may have any moral ambiguity at
all. In any case, this is brave and provocative cinema that cuts across
the guilt versus innocence binary.
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