It is certain that the buffer “true story” almost always reinforces the point of a fiction, even more so if it is a drama. How then can we not feel deep empathy for one or other of the protagonists? A logic that applies to series, with for example Departure offered at the beginning of January 2025 on Netflix, which is inspired by the terrible disappearance of flight MH370, but also in the cinema. This is the case ofA life (2024), which chronicles the journey of the man considered to be the British Schindler. Broadcast this Wednesday January 15, 2025 at 9 p.m. on Arte, the English production Philomena is also in this case, centered on a particularly poignant story.
Philomena: a gripping and heartbreaking drama about Irish mothers deprived of their children
In London, Martin Sixmith, a disillusioned journalist, is contacted by Philomena Lee, an elderly woman looking for her son. In 1952, she, a teenager and pregnant, was sent to a strict convent in Ireland. In compensation for the care provided by the nuns, she works in the laundry and is only allowed to see her son, Anthony, for one hour a day. At the age of three, he was taken from him to be adopted by Americans. The story of young mothers whose children were taken away by the Church in the 1950s is a sensitive issue in Ireland and has caused scandal in the country. A filmmaker always attentive to societal issues, Stephen Frears, director of The Queen in 2006 or Florence Foster Jenkins played by Meryl Streep (2016), makes a fascinating film. Between past and present, from London to the Irish countryside via the United States, the investigation led by Martin Sixmith, adapted from the true story of Philomena Lee, reserves many surprises. Without revealing anything, the fate of the mother and her son proves to be most heartbreaking.
Who are the actors of Philomena ?
To lighten the atmosphere a little, Frears counts on the complicity of the duo, both antagonistic and endearing, formed by Steeve Coogan (recently seen in October 2024 in Joker: Folie à deux) and Judi Dench, the M of the James Bond saga, who has decided to retire in May 2024 due to a degenerative illness. A highly appreciated actor across the Channel, but little known in France, Steeve Cogan co-wrote the screenplay, adapted from the homonymous novel written by Martin Sixsmith, and met many of the protagonists in the affair. This concentrate of emotion was nominated four times for the 2014 Oscars and won the Bafta (the British equivalent of the Césars) for best adapted screenplay. The film also created controversy in the United States when it was released in theaters, with a New York critic describing it as “boring, hate-filled attack on Catholics“. This is obviously not the case, and this strong and disturbing story must be discovered urgently.
