Latest news with #GreatFamine
Daily Record
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Netflix streaming 'captivating' period drama based on real events that viewers can't get enough of
Netflix fans are raving about a psychological period drama starring Florence Pugh which explores the phenomenon of 'fasting girls'. Netflix is now streaming Sebastián Lelio's 2022 historical thriller The Wonder which has been hailed as "entirely fresh and equally brilliant" by critics. The period drama is inspired by the same-titled 2016 novel written by Emma Donoghue, who also contributed to its screenplay alongside Lelio and Alice Birch. Set against the backdrop of post-famine Ireland in 1862, The Wonder tells the tale of English nurse Lib Wright, played by Florence Pugh, and a girl called Anna O'Donnell (Nan), portrayed by Kíla Lord Cassidy. Lib arrives in a deeply religious and rural community and is given the job of observing an enigmatic 'fasting girl', who astonishingly claims to sustain herself without food through divine intervention. While The Wonder is not entirely based on a true story, the film's premise mirrors historical reality. During Ireland's Great Famine, there was a harrowing increase in cases of 'fasting girls'. Starring Academy Award-nominated Florence Pugh as the leading role, The Wonder boasts a stellar cast that also includes young talent Kíla Lord Cassidy, Tom Burke, Elaine Cassidy, Niamh Algar, Brían F. O'Byrne, Dermot Crowley, and David Wilmot. The movie was filmed across the Emerald Isle in late summer 2021 and graced a selection of cinemas for a brief stint in November 2022 before it was introduced on Netflix, the Express reports. The Wonder earned recognition at the 2023 BAFTA Film Awards with an Outstanding British Film nomination. Chatting with Screen Daily about her decision to join forces with Chilean maestro Sebastián Lelio for 'The Wonder', Pugh said: "It's been said many times by women who have worked with Sebastian that he has this fantastic ability to tell women's stories. "It takes a pretty special person to (a), not be from the country that the film is about, and (b), not have proof of doing an era like this before and tell a very challenging female story." She continued: "I wanted to play Lib in a very raw and natural way and he was 100% behind me. Then, of course, you get him on set and you see the crew is in love with him and everybody is so happy to be working on that job. "I suppose it all trickles down from the top and he gave such an amazing example of how to lead a film." The Wonder received positive reviews from critics with one stating: "Not every story can or should be a movie, despite Hollywood's 's insistence otherwise. Some should remain books. "Some should remain silent. And some, such as this, provide a fresh reminder of the power of visual storytelling." Another impressed viewer described the film as: "Equally haunting, heartbreaking and heartening, it's a narrative about narratives' ability to transform, destroy, resurrect, imprison, and liberate." Someone else applauded the film's progression, commenting: "As the picture develops from a spooky Brontë romance into a pointed indictment of society, it takes aim at some familiar targets, but the dramatic impact is powerful." Meanwhile, a fourth added: "A film about the danger of believing without questioning that turns us into full-throated believers in whatever Lelio and Pugh can do." Pugh's outstanding performance has also been praised by critics with one writing: "It might have all been too weighty and metaphorical were it not for Pugh... She is the whole package. A wonder indeed." Others echoed this sentiment, with one saying: "It is a well-told story, far from the empty stories that we are always told every day, you can appreciate the layers of the characters and Pugh's great artistic ability to make us experience these types of emotions." Another glowing audience review read: "Wonderful, poetic, captivating. A rare movie that makes you think. Excellent acting keeps you in tension throughout the movie, great soundtrack." Someone else admitted they found it "initially a bit slow, but ultimately engrossing and rewarding".
Daily Mirror
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
The Netflix period drama based on a true story that fans are raving about
The Wonder is a historical drama that tells the story of a 'fasting girl' who claims to live without food and water - and the English nurse who is sent to investigate Sebastian Lelio's 2022 historical thriller The Wonder has been lauded as "entirely fresh and equally brilliant" by critics. The film, available on Netflix, is based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Emma Donoghue, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Lelio and Alice Birch. Set in post-famine Ireland in 1862, The Wonder tells the story of English nurse Lib Wright, played by Florence Pugh, and a girl named Anna O'Donnell (Nan), brilliantly portrayed by Kila Lord Cassidy. Lib is sent to a devout rural community to observe a mysterious 'fasting girl', who claims to survive without food through divine intervention. While the film is based on a work of fiction, its premise reflects historical reality. During the Great Famine in Ireland, there was a disturbing increase in cases of 'fasting girls'. These women claimed to live on heavenly 'manna' and said they could go months without food, according to Surrey Live, reports the Express. The Wonder stars Academy Award-nominated Florence Pugh and features an impressive cast including rising star Kila Lord Cassidy, Tom Burke, Elaine Cassidy, Niamh Algar, Brian F. O'Byrne, Dermot Crowley, and David Wilmot. Shooting amidst the stunning Irish landscapes in late summer 2021, 'The Wonder' wowed cinema-goers in a limited November 2022 release before garnering widespread acclaim on Netflix. The film's prowess was acknowledged with a nod for Outstanding British Film at the 2023 BAFTA Film Awards. During an intimate chat with Screen Daily about her choice to collaborate with Chilean director Sebastian Lelio for 'The Wonder', Florence Pugh gushed: "It's been said many times by women who have worked with Sebastian that he has this fantastic ability to tell women's stories. "It takes a pretty special person to (a), not be from the country that the film is about, and (b), not have proof of doing an era like this before and tell a very challenging female story." Diving deeper into her decision, Pugh remarked, "I wanted to play Lib in a very raw and natural way and he was 100% behind me. Then, of course, you get him on set and you see the crew is in love with him and everybody is so happy to be working on that job. I suppose it all trickles down from the top and he gave such an amazing example of how to lead a film." Critics lauded the film effusively, with one reviewer commenting: "Not every story can or should be a movie, despite Hollywood's insistence otherwise. Some should remain books. Some should remain silent. And some, such as this, provide a fresh reminder of the power of visual storytelling." The film garnered glowing reviews, with one critic saying: "Equally haunting, heartbreaking and heartening, it's a narrative about narratives' ability to transform, destroy, resurrect, imprison, and liberate." Another critic praised the film's development, noting: "As the picture develops from a spooky Bronte romance into a pointed indictment of society, it takes aim at some familiar targets, but the dramatic impact is powerful." In appreciation of the movie's theme, a reviewer remarked: "A film about the danger of believing without questioning that turns us into full-throated believers in whatever Lelio and Pugh can do." Florence's performance was hailed by critics, as one stated: "It might have all been too weighty and metaphorical were it not for Pugh... She is the whole package. A wonder indeed." This sentiment was shared among viewers, with one audience member commenting: "It is a well-told story, far from the empty stories that we are always told every day, you can appreciate the layers of the characters and Pugh's great artistic ability to make us experience these types of emotions." An audience review professed: "Wonderful, poetic, captivating. A rare movie that makes you think. Excellent acting keeps you in tension throughout the movie, great soundtrack." One person described the film as "a thrilling exorcism of beliefs", while another shared their viewing experience: "initially a bit slow, but ultimately engrossing and rewarding".
Epoch Times
6 days ago
- Business
- Epoch Times
China Will Fight US Tariffs Even at Famine-Level Cost: Insider
As Washington and Beijing remain locked in a high-stakes tariff war, an insider said Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials are willing to engage in a long-term conflict with the United States. According to the insider, Chinese leader Xi Jinping's close ally, Cai Qi, said at a high-level CCP meeting to assess the U.S.–China tariff war that the Chinese populace must endure the resulting economic strain—even if it causes suffering for the Chinese people on par with the Great Famine of 1959 to 1961, which killed an estimated 40 million across rural China.
Irish Examiner
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Book review: Reinterpreting the Irish Famine as a consequence of unbridled capitalism
More than six million visitors attended the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. Held in the cast iron, specially-built Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, this global fair showcased the industrial might of the UK, the world's most powerful economy. But it failed to acknowledge the tragedy unfolding within its borders. During the Great Famine (1845-52), at least 1m people died of starvation in Ireland and about 1.5m fled. In 1847, Britain's prime minister, Lord John Russell, likened the spiralling calamity to a 'famine of the 13th century'. For Padraic X Scanlan, this gross juxtaposition of commercial celebration and human catastrophe encapsulates Britain's ruthless attitude to the Great Famine. The historian's central contention in Rot is that Westminster's response to the starvation was defined by its overarching commitment to the principles of the free market. Underlining the book's polemical tone, Scanlan argues that Ireland during the Famine was a laboratory in which the most exploitative aspects of 'capitalist modernity' were unleashed. 'The blight was a consequence of a novel pathogen spreading among fields of vulnerable plants,' he writes. But the famine — a complex ecological, economic, logistical, and political disaster — was a consequence of colonialism. The dependence of the working poor on the potato in pre-Famine Ireland was unmatched anywhere in the world. Many Britons regarded the potato as the source of Irish poverty, associating the food with the lower classes' innate laziness and lack of civilisation. This perspective ignored the transformative effect of the land settlement achieved by Oliver Cromwell's conquest of the country. In pre-Famine Ireland, about 2.7m people (more than 20% of the population) were landless, while only 4,000 people owned almost 80% of Irish land. Successive Westminster administrations viewed the Famine through the lens of eliminating Ireland's dependence on the potato — and an opportunity to civilise its poor. Charles Trevelyan, a treasury secretary who's often portrayed as arch villain of the Great Hunger, characterised the humanitarian crisis as a 'sharp but effectual remedy' to 'cure' the problem of Irish backwardness. Tellingly, he published his account of the Famine in 1848, just over halfway through the event. Scanlan is an associate professor at the University of Toronto. Reinterpreting history is a hallmark of the Canadian's approach and a refrain in the author's two previous books, both of which focused on the British slave trade. Scanlan adopts a similar angle in Rot and balances wide research into the politics and economy of Famine Ireland with unsettling closeups of starvation. From contemporary accounts, we glimpse the extent of the devastation: people eating wild birds' eggs, rotting carrion, grass, moss, dirt, worms, cats, dogs, and rats. But his didactic analysis is a blunt instrument to untangle the complexities of the era. Likewise, Scanlan's suggestion that current societal problems, such as gaping inequality, exorbitant rents, and insecure employment, echo the anxieties of pre-Famine Ireland is a misstep. In 1861, the Irish nationalist John Mitchel wrote: 'the Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the famine'. Rot revisits the question of British responsibility because 'blame matters'. The British government didn't intentionally starve Ireland during the Famine, Scanlan admits, but 'it was not innocent'. No country in Europe was affected as profoundly as Ireland by the 1840s potato blight. In Belgium, the potato failure caused a severe food crisis, but from 1846 to 1856 the population increased by 200,000. Ultimately, Scanlan identifies the ideologies underpinning Britain's reaction to the Irish Famine as the lynchpin. 'Colonialism and capitalism created conditions that turned blight into famine.' Scanlan's arguments lack the rigour to always convince, but they make Rot a provocative read. Read More Book review: Fleeing Famine and oppression for the land of opportunity
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Who Do You Think You Are? sees Aisling Bea discover family ties to key moments in Irish history
Aisling Bea opens up on the emotional experience of discovering the stories of her ancestors while heavily pregnant with her own first child in her episode of Who Do You Think You Are?. The comedian and actor was in the late stages of pregnancy whilst filming her episode of the BBC One genealogy show, where she discovered both sides of her family had been involved in some key moments of Irish history. Her journey through Ireland on the trail of her family tree before her daughter was born in August 2024 can be seen tonight, Tuesday 20 May, on BBC One at 9pm. Bea is proud of her Irish heritage and so she is thrilled to discover that her relatives were present at some key moments in Irish there is an uncomfortable piece of news about one of them. Exploring more about her three-times great-grandmother, she finds out that she actually ended up with more land to her name after the 1845 Great Famine after other tenants were evicted. Bea admits: "That is hard to does make me feel a little bit shameful, to be honest." She adds: "It doesn't leave me with a very proud feeling, at all." However, the comedian's family pride is reignited once more when she finds out the fascinating story of her great-grandfather's role in the 1916 Easter Rising. He had protested over British rule in Ireland by filling out a census in the Irish language, one of just two men of hundreds with his surname to do so. He was also involved in campaigning and marches that put him at the centre of the rising. "Oh wow, that makes me so proud," she says. Another family story that leaves Bea beaming is the tale of her great-great-grandmother who moved to the remote Blasket Islands to become one of its first teachers, continuing to teach into old age after bringing up her own children. A pregnant Bea smiles as she says: "You see, people do keep working when they have children!" Reflecting on what she has found out during the episode, Bea says proudly: "I feel like on this journey, there have been such specific points in history that I learned about as a kid during school - the famine, the 1916 rising, the revival of the Irish culture. And now suddenly, I have all of these personal connections and stories within all those moments in history, whether it was my three-times great-grandmother surviving on her own as a widow through the famine period, or my great-grandfather being directly involved in the build-up towards the 1916 rising. Or even my great-great-grandmother who ends up on the Blasket Islands as one of the first teachers to go out there and educate the kids out there. Tonight's episode of #WDYTYA takes actor, writer and comedian @WeeMissBea to Ireland to discover stories of resilience among her ancestors. Tune in on @BBCOne at 9pm. — WDYTYA? UK (@WDYTYA_UK) May 20, 2025 "It's just sort of blown my mind and given me a really interesting different point of view on so many moments that I felt I knew so well and no know so personally." She continues: "They all fit into two things that I carry passionately about me in life, which is feminism and the placement of women and their voices, and Ireland and our culture. I can't believe how much of that voice has come into the stories and I just feel so lucky to be exploring this journey while being about to create my own little line." Looking at her bump, she jokes: "So hopefully you don't disappoint us all!" Who Do You Think You Are? airs on BBC One at 9pm on Tuesday, 20 May.
