Noble (Stephen Bradley, 2014): UK

Reviewed by Moa Hellenaes. Viewed at Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

This film is based on a true story that is incredible. A woman who had a rough childhood in Ireland does everything she can to stop the horrible things that are happening in Vietnam. But how much is she willing to sacrifice for the children in Ho Chi Minh City? When I saw that this film is based on a true story I knew I would like it. The film becomes more interesting and it is easier to feel sympathy for the people in it. Stephen Bradley is the director of this film and his wife, Deirdre O’Kane, plays the main character Christina Noble.

Christina had a pretty tough childhood since her mother is dead and her father is an alcoholic. During Christina’s time at the catholic school for girl she gets gang raped. A few weeks later she finds out that she is pregnant but the school won’t let her keep the baby and they give it away for adoption. The nuns at the school sometimes hit Christina,  she feels betrayed and does everything to get away from this town with a guy she meets.

When we get to watch Christina when she is older we follow her journey in Vietnam. She sees two young girls with broken clothes who are looking for food in the dumpsters. Christina feels so bad for them and want to help them in any way she is able to. She does that and when they show her where they live there is a lot of other children too. Another thing she finds out about is that most of the children are being forced to sell them selves on the street, most buyers are men from other countries who are there on vacation. Christina wants this to stop. She tries her best to build a social- and health center for all of those children that need it, many of them do. The problem is to fins sponsors that are willing to donate the money that she need to build it. Christina came to Vietnam with just a couple of dollars so she is not able to pay for it her self.

During the sad parts of the film the lighting is very dark and that reminded me of The Book Thief (Brian Percival, 2013). It gives the moment a certain feeling when the lighting and environment is more appropriate for it, you are able to relate to what is really happening. Another thing that I thought of is that there were a lot of close-ups, especially when the showed faces. I can imagine that it was because they wanted to show who did what. Who was the good guy and who was the bad guy. They spoke English in the film but it was not that good English. I can imagine the people from Vietnam do not have that good experience with English but the main character, Christina, was from Ireland and when we saw her as a teenager she spoke very good English. Later, when she was older and in Vietnam, her English pronunciation was pretty bad. I reacted to that because the teenager spoke well. If Christina would have spoken bad English throughout the film I would not have thought about it.

Overall I really liked this film and would recommend it to people I know. Mostly because I got so inspired that there actually are people out there who put their own lives at risk to save others. Christina wanted to show that one person can do more than we think, and she proved that. It is an amazing film and I am glad that I was able to see it at the film festival.