Review by Nick Wheatley
Stars Kate Rutter, Neil Dudgeon, Christine Bottomley, Manjinder Virk,
Natalie Gavin, Robert Emms, Jimi Mistry, Kathryn Pogson, Danny Webb, George Costigan
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £19.99 | BD region B | Runtime 94 minutes | Directed by Clio Barnard
The Arbor is an extremely unique viewing experience that manages to combine documentary and art, surpassing specific genres and presenting a new hybrid of filmmaking. The film presents the powerful true story of the Bradford born playwright Andrea Dunbar who was a resident of the tough Buttershaw Estate and particularly the namesakes Brafferton Arbor. Her life was tragically cut short at the age of 29 leaving three young children to be moved into fostercare. We learn about Dunbar's life through a variety of archive footage of her own interviews and productions, certain scenes from her plays are performed to us as well as a large collection of audio interviews conducted with many of Dunbar's family and friends. These are then expressed via actors lip synching the recordings adding a visual and dramatic flair to the piece.
The outstanding feature of the picture is the inclusion of the audio interviews which are in turn performed to emphasise the emotion in these accounts of Dunbar's life. All the actors involved do a remarkable job of maintaining the feel of the voice and I must commend the actors and director for it must have taken a lot of work to achieve these results. Knowing these comments are all true really brings a stark reality and intensity to the film which manages to analyse Dunbar in extreme depth via the people that knew her best. Many facets of her character are presented to us including her genius and ability to perceive and contain her own experiences and translate them to art at an early age. Plus we see her darker side which stems from her Arbor upbringing, particularly when we hear from one of her daughters Lorraine Dunbar and the bitter memories and resentment she harbours to her own mother.
We also get to witness the basis of many of her characters in her own productions and the inspiration for much of her work which was based mostly on life experiences. There are also several performances from various scenes of Dunbars plays which were performed almost as streetside art, with for instance a lounge set in a front garden with locals from the arbor watching the family drama unfold in front of them. It felt a little bizarre and uncomfortable but was effective in showing Dunbars work to the locals that it represented. Even though Dunbar disliked her home and background she contained elements of the Arbor herself, we learn this as we hear from the impact she had on her own children and many others.
This project is an interesting exploration of a troubled life and this new and innovative style works brilliantly in bringing the truth of the woman to life and is a remarkable achievment shaped by an innovative director. The film does consistently maintain a bleak and dreary tone and unfortunately towards the final act does not develop much further than that, creating a slight monotonous feel by the end. However there are many powerful and poinant moments contained in the Arbor which is a fabulous tribute to Dunabr and her community which she was never able to escape from.
EXTRAS ★ A rather limited and weak set of extras are contained with this film. Simply a brief trailer and a short film (Road Race) which has little relevance to the feature. I was hoping to see an insight into the making of the film and in particular the challenge of lipsynching with the audio interviews, or even a few more details of Andrea Dunbar. For a film that has such a unique way of working behind the camera these extras are very poor.