The Unloved
Filmmaker: Samantha Morton
UK / 2010 / 106 mins / English
Opening Weekend Date: 19 February 2010
Cinemas screening the film: ICA and selected cities
The directorial debut from Oscar-nominated actress Samantha Morton, this powerful drama about a young girl growing up in a children's home provides an intimate child's-eye view of the UK's care system
Lucy is 11 years-old. She lives with her father. After a beating from her father Lucy is taken to a children’s home, Crop Row, where she is left with nothing apart from the school uniform she is wearing. In the home she meets 16 year-old Lauren who, after initial hostilities, takes Lucy under her wing.
In the home Lucy witnesses Lauren being abused by one of the workers and runs away to her now contrite father. Back at the home after a short reunion with her father, she witnesses a violent exchange during a Christmas party and journeys to her mother’s home in the hope of staying there.
Working with screenwriter Tony Grisoni (Red Riding), Morton has created a script that gives an honest and intimate child's-eye view of the care system in the UK. Filmed in Morton's hometown of Nottingham, the two young leads – Molly Windsor and Lauren Socha – were cast through a series of open auditions held across Nottingham schools, drama groups and at The Television Workshop, which Morton herself attended.