Directed by Thea Sharrock (Me Before You (2016); Call the Midwife (tv series, 2013-2014)) and starring Olivia Colman (The Lobster (2015); The Lost Daughter (2022); The Father (2021); The Favourite (2019)), Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter (2022); Fargo (tv series, 2020); The Courier (2020)), Anjana Vasan (Cinderella (2015); Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019); Killing Eve (tv series, 2022)), Timothy Spall (Mr Turner (2014); Vanilla Sky (2001); The Last Bus (2021); Mrs Lowry and Son (2019)) and Paul Chahidi (The Death of Stalin (2017); Notting Hill (1999); Christopher Robin (2018)).
Comedy; 102 mins; 12+
Set in the 1920s in Littlehampton, an English seaside town where middle-aged Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) lives with her mother and father, Edward Swan (Timothy Spall) in a terraced house. He used to run a sign-writing business and they are a conservative, God-fearing family.
Next door lives Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley), a raw, rowdy, loud-mouthed Irish woman with a daughter; the girl's father had died in the war and she now lives with a new partner.
The two woman may be polar opposites but, as neighbours, they started to get to know one another. Then one day Edith starts to receive poison pen letters, both scandalous and obscene, in the post, and the keep coming. The police are involved but Chief Constable Spedding (Paul Chahidi) and his staff just want a quick resolution. Edward Swan has never warmed to Rose Gooding and urges the police to arrest her. Then other villagers start to receive similar obscene letters as well...
As Rose fears she may lose her daughter, and the police are closing in, young Police Officer Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan), who herself has to battle sexism and male chauvinism, starts to investigate on the quiet.
Is Rose the culprit? If not, who is? ... The story attracts notoriety via the national press. Meanwhile, a couple of villagers come to Rose's support and try to help her.
A wicked comedy involving a a stranger-than-fiction true story
Shown as an Avant-Premier in a BIFFL Presents... screening, as part of the British & Irish Film Festival Luxembourg 2024 Spring Edition.
