Mulberry Bush is a boarding school in Oxford for children suffering from severe emotional trauma, whose truancy and aggression has got them expelled from previous regular schools (sometimes on numerous occasions). No longer able to attend with other "normal" children, this is their last hope for gaining an education before they are released into the world.
Director Kim Longinotto presents a harrowing film of the other side where normal child behaviour includes screaming, spitting, violence and emotional outpouring. Not what you would say a normal teacher/pupil relationship is by any standards.
Each day teachers and pupils go head to head; the former battling physical abuse and the type of insults that would make even a sailor blush, while the later struggle to survive in an environment which demands responsibility and accountability.
The children in this film are very real and although Longinotto invades their personal space, following each child as they cope with stress and loss, she still manages to present an honest and heartfelt look into the issues that colour the lives of those that call this place home.
Although rough around the edges the film paints a very moving picture. Sensitive to the conditions that led the children into this place it manages to show them in a humane and loving light – each with their own unique personality – and revealing deep down that they aren't unrepentant misfits but souls that are crying out for help.
The teachers are the heroes in this film. Patient to the point of being almost inhuman, they deal with tantrums that would have the rest of us running towards the hills, spending long hours talking, restraining, educating and healing these emotionally battered little ones.
As one boy said, "With a few words I can change the world" which is indicative of the morals and values that are instilled in these children. For without understanding, without love and without accountability they would just become more lost and aggressive souls, withering beneath the burden of a society that does not understand.
Four stars out of five
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