https://letterboxd.com/film/flowers-of-the-forest/ https://letterboxd.com/films/year/1996/
★★★½
Rewatched https://letterboxd.com/man_out_of_time/diary/for/2023/05/20/ https://letterboxd.com/man_out_of_time/diary/for/2023/05/ https://letterboxd.com/man_out_of_time/diary/for/2023/
Mark Cunliffe 🇵🇸’s review published on Letterboxd:
Do you ever watch a film and then come on here and think, "God I wish x was reviewing this rather than me?" That's what I'm feeling right now. Because I know that m'colleague Graham Williamson would have much more to say regarding this 1996 Screen Two drama, and I know he'd say it all better than I could. Written by Michael Eaton and directed by Michael Whyte, Flowers of the Forest is a drama inspired by a contemporary scandal of the day, one that I know is one of Graham's interests - the 'satanic panic'.
Concern over ritual or satanic abuse networks in the UK first began in the early 1990s, with reports coming in from Rochdale, Nottingham and the Orkneys. Fearing widespread and orchestrated abuse and sacrificial murders, the Department of Health commissioned an investigation into the cases, culminating in a report published in 1994 from anthropologist Jean La Fontaine which concluded that no evidence was found of satanic abuse - it was all a myth. However, the report was challenged by psychiatrists Valerie Sinason and Rob Hale, who claimed that forty-six of their patients had claimed to have witnessed ritual abuse ceremonies and child murder involving up to 300 people at a time. It wasn't until 2000 that it was revealed that Sinason and Hale had received a £22,000 government grant to provide evidence of satanic practices. In short, it could be argued that it literally paid for them to corroborate the allegations.
Flowers of the Forest explores the two conflicting sides of the story in a narrative involving Social Services in the Scottish Highlands. When two infant children previously known to the department begin to talk of a 'controller' dressed in black at the centre of a circle, social worker Janet Hinton (Lia Williams) reaches out to Aileen Matthews, an independent expert in ritual abuse played by Pauline Collins. As Matthews undertakes her investigations, she begins to convince Janet that their small community is a hotbed of satanic worship and child abuse, but Jane's junior Magda (Susan Vidler) begins to voice her own doubts and scepticism to health chair, Dr Elizabeth Mackay (Annette Crosbie).
A solid procedural that is careful to showcase both sides of the argument, Flowers of the Forest boasts a series of strong performances from the cast, including an early appearance from Kelly Macdonald as the eldest daughter of the family at the centre of the scandal. I've never wholly been convinced by Pauline Collins as a performer; there's something about her delivery, the way she always seems to be quietly amused, that takes me out of the story and stops me believing in her. It works in some things, notably Shirley Valentine, where that knowing aura sells the numerous fourth wall breaks, and it surprisingly works here too. Adopting a soft Welsh lilt, the twinkle in her eye becomes a kind of barely contained excitable fervour as she hears what she wants to her from the testimonies of the children.
