Posts Tagged ‘Digital release’

Prisoners of Paradise (2025)

Dir: Mitch Jenkins | UK Drama

Prisoners of Paradise is a ravishingly beautiful colonial drama, blending history, forbidden love and social injustice in 1920s Mauritius.

Directed by Mitch Jenkins, it adapts Romesh Gunesekera’s novel Prisoner of Paradise, itself inspired by the lives of Alan and Maria Govinden, into an emotional period drama.

The story follows Lucy (Ellie Bamber), an orphan sent to live with her charming but manipulative uncle. Intended as a pawn in his financial schemes, she falls in love with Krishna, a local labourer whose presence challenges the racial and class hierarchies of colonial Mauritius. Their romance unfolds within a society shaped by exploitation and control, giving the familiar star-crossed lovers story added political weight.

Jenkins adopts a classical storytelling style, embracing rather than deconstructing the period romance. Emotion, atmosphere and character take precedence over irony. The screenplay occasionally veers into melodrama, but its sincerity is one of its strengths.

Ellie Bamber delivers a warm, open performance, charting Lucy’s shift from innocence to independence. Medhi Dehbi brings quiet dignity and intelligence to Krishna, grounding the romance. Rupert Penry-Jones is effective as entitled colonial authority, while Rhona Mitra adds welcome nuance in a potentially thin role.

Visually, the film is consistently striking. Mauritius is more than a picturesque backdrop; beaches, forests and colonial architecture are contrasted with the social structures beneath them. Golden light and rich period detail create an immersive setting, while the camera favours intimate moments over spectacle.

The film follows familiar genre beats, but with enough conviction and emotional generosity to offset predictability. It also keeps sight of the historical realities behind its romance, where colonial power extends into the policing of love itself.

Prisoners of Paradise works as both romantic drama and reflection on race, class and freedom. It doesn’t reinvent the genre, but its strong performances, assured craft and sincerity make for a moving, satisfying adaptation.

ON DIGITAL and in selected cinemas in UK from 10 August

Storm Boy (2019) ***

Dir: Shawn Seet |Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Trevor Jamieson, David Galpilil, Finn Little, Jai Courtney, Eric Thomson | Drama Aus 95′

Geoffrey Rush and Trevor Jamieson are the stars of this tender-hearted tale of animal magic between a boy and his pet pelican. Trevor Jamieson plays kindly beachcomber Fingerbone Bill who joins forces with a kindred nature boy Mike (Finn Little) who lives with his reclusive widower father (Jai Courtney), known locally as “Hideaway Tom.”

Based on Colin Thiele’s popular children’s novel that originally found its way on to the screen in 1976 courtesy of Henri Safran’s able direction, this less vaunted version turns into a damp squib rather than an uplifting message of hope, due to Seet’s messy direction.

The wild and windswept beaches of Australia’s Coorong National Park lend luminosity to the bittersweet boyhood saga that sees retired property developer Michael Kingley (Rush) as the grown-up version of the book’s child character, recounting his version of events to his schoolgirl granddaughter Maddy (Morgan Davies) who lives in a modernist beach villa, adding property porn allure and making it all the more easy on the eye.

But storm clouds loom over this seaside idyll in the shape of a proposal from Kingley’s old property firm to lease land on the untrammelled eco-lagoon to a mining company. Kingley is against the deal, his son-in-law Malcolm (Eric Thomson) all for it, as the new MD. But that’s not all. Nasty poachers are threatening to shoot down Mr Percival the Pelican, adding to the family’s saucerful of sorrows.

Little Mike has formed a close bond with Mr Percival having raised the sea bird and its fellow chicks when its mother was killed by the very same poachers. Gradually they have become inseparable, as is the case with many lonely or isolated kids, Mike describing Mr P as “the best friend I ever had” the bird nestling affectionately into his arms. But as you can imagine, it doesn’t end well, although the ecological upshot takes the sting out of this crowd-pleaser which also welcomes back the original Fingerbone Bill in a great cameo from David Gulpilil. MT

ON DIGITAL RELEASE FROM 6 APRIL 2020

 

 

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