Blessed
When Director Ana Kokkinos saw the play Who’s Afraid of the Working Class, she just knew that the stories could be adapted to the big screen.
Several years on, and her vision – Blessed – has reached our screens.
Kokkinos and her writing colleagues set about formulating a screenplay, but it became evident that the story needed an anchor. Finally, they realised that the cornerstone of their story, would be the relationship between mothers and children: the (often misunderstood) ways they perceive each other, and the different ways in which they experience the world around them.
We are first exposed to the lives of the children: lost, wayward, miscreants who, deep down, desperately yearn for security and love.
Presumably, they come from neglectful, even abusive families. Or do they? In the second part of the film, we are shown the perspective of these children’s mothers, who are generally trying to do the best they can, in difficult circumstances.
The mothers and their children are in search of the currency that is most necessary but that eludes them. For the children, it is love and attention; for the mothers, it is money. Both mothers and children are frequently unaware that they have found what they are looking for, and when it comes their way, opportunities are squandered.
Kokkinos hurled a massive net into the talent pool when casting for this film: a process which took no less than eight months. By her own admission, there were times when it was downright arduous and seemingly endless. But having seen the completed film, it is evident that this film’s ability to move the audience relies just as heavily on the cast, as it does on any other aspect of the production. Her determination to assemble the best, and most suitable cast, is rewarded in the final product.
Debora-lee Furness delivers a strong performance as Tanya, a gutsy woman who is determined to make her mortgage payments, and keep her family together. Her husband (William McInnes) appears to be turning his attention elsewhere, and she fears losing her son to the streets. Victoria Halarabidou’s widowed character fears she may already have lost her son, and while obsessing over her perceived loss, fails to notice her daughter’s need for attention.
Francis O’Connor, in the primal depiction of maternal instinct I’ve ever seen, challenges our preconceptions about single mothers with children from different fathers, and the intrusion of the government in their lives, resulting from these women’s dependence on welfare.
The children in this film are all excellent. Eva Lazzaro, once again, succeeds in immediately drawing the audience’s sympathies, while Anastasia Baboussouras , as Gina’s daughter Trisha, is a promising new-comer to the big screen and a real find.
Blessed meanders interestingly into other themes, such as the stolen generation, and the sexual exploitation of children, but remains, ostensibly, about mothers and their offspring, and is an illuminating study of both sides of this innately tender but sometimes fraught generational divide.
While some facets of the story play out somewhat predictably, Blessed is nonetheless, a genuinely moving film, and, amid an already impressive opus, Kokkinos’ most accomplished and mature work to date.