Ladybird, Ladybird movie storyline. This Ken Loach docu-drama relates the story of a British woman’s fight with Social Services over the care of her children. Maggie has a history of bouncing from one abusive relationship to another. She has four children, of four different fathers, who came to the attention of Social Services when they were injured in a fire. Subsequently, Maggie was found to be an “unfit mother” and her children were removed from her care.
She finally meets the man of her dreams, a Paraguayan expatriate, and they start a family together. Unfortunately, Social Services seems unwilling to accept that her life has changed and rends them from their new children. She and Jorge together, and separately, fight Social Services, Immigration, and other government bureaucrats in a desperate battle to make their family whole again.
Ladybird, Ladybird is a 1994 British drama film directed by Ken Loach. It is a drama-documentary about a British woman’s dispute with Social Services over the care and custody of her four children. The title comes from a traditional nursery rhyme of the same name. Crissy Rock won the Silver Bear for Best Actress award at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival.
About the Story
In a karaoke bar Maggie (Crissy Rock), a woman with a troubled past, meets South American Jorge and has a drink with him. During their conversation we learn about both their past lives; in flashback we learn that she witnessed her father beating her mother, and later was beaten several times by her ex-partner (Ray Winstone). She has four children by four different fathers and all of her children are in care. Jorge is a Paraguayan who is afraid to return to his own country for fear of persecution there.
Maggie goes on to make a relationship with Jorge, being impressed with his poetry and his history. Her relationship with him is initially a tentative one because of her previous experience with her earlier partner. The film goes on to show her time in a women’s refuge: one night as she was singing in a club she was told that there was trouble at her home; when she got there she found that her house had been subject to a fire and her children were injured. The local authority then took her children into care and Maggie now blames her former abusive partner for having her children taken from her but she says she shares some of the blame.
Maggie’s relationship with Jorge becomes more intense but more strained as Maggie’s mental stresses become apparent. They set up home together and have a daughter but she is taken from them by the local authority under a Place of Safety order on the grounds that she is an unreliable mother with “low intellect”. Jorge is then threatened with deportation to Paraguay from the UK because he has been illegally employed but he is allowed to stay in the UK because of his good character and the plea he makes to the court. Maggie and Jorge have another baby daughter and once again their child is taken into care. Maggie becomes distraught and has to be sedated.
Ladybird, Ladybird (1994)
Directed by: Ken Loach
Starring: Crissy Rock, Vladimir Vega, Sandie Lavelle, Mauricio Venegas, Ray Winstone, Clare Perkins, Jason Stracey, Luke Brown, Linda Ross, Sue Sawyer, Pamela Hunt
Screenplay by: Rona Munro
Production Design by: Martin Johnson
Cinematography by: Barry Ackroyd
Film Editing by: Jonathan Morris
Makeup Department: Anne Spiers
Art Direction by: Fergus Clegg
Music by: George Fenton
MPAA Rating: R for strong language and intense depiction of domestic abuse.
Distributed by: The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Release Date: June 16, 1994
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