The Arbor: biopic of playwright Andrea Dunbar

[Maurice]

Sunday Telegraph 'DVD of the Week'
Alan Stanbrook:

THE ARBOR
Verve Pictures, Cert.15

Brafferton Arbor is part of Bradford's troubled Buttershaw Estate, where playwright Andrea Dunbar lived her brief life. Born in 1961, she died in 1990 of a brain haemorrhage.

Clio Barnard's first feature is a biopic of an entirely new kind. The soundtrack features the voices and words of Andrea's two daughters, but delivered in lip-synch by the actresses. The power of drama and the reality of documentary are thus indissolubly spiced.

It's a remarkable experiment. Andrea Dunbar completed few plays, though one was filmed (RITA, SUE AND BOB TOO). She struck a new chord midway between working- class realism and theatrical stylisation, which this film echoes in wholly individual ways.

Almost none of the cast is well known, but Manjinder Virk, as Andrea's troubled half-Pakistani daughter Lorraine is outstanding

[seanflynn76]

I for one am eager to purchase this, simply as all I know of Dunbar is "Rita, Sue and Bob too" and the sad and tragic incident that occured with her Grandson.... The Arbour recieved a BAFTA nomination...

[railroaded]

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