Movies From the Hat V #4 – Craig’s Pick – The Family (2016)

This is my 2953rd Review

Thanks to Craig of Cinecal Reviews  for this recommendation.

Here are his thoughts on the film.

“I saw where the children were secreted under the house when those evil police officers came, who the children were told would kill you if they saw you.” – Lex de Man

Number of Times Seen – 1 (15 Mar 2017)

Brief Synopsis – Documentary about a cult from the late 60-70 who preyed on the lax Australian adoption laws in order to add many children to their cult.

My Take on it – I personally knew nothing about this cult before seeing this film.

Obviously, everything that was done to these children was horrific and traumatizing to them but this film gives too broad of an overview of what happened and would have been more effective had it been more comprehensive.

The interviews with the former children and other members of the cult aren’t as powerful as expected from a story like this.

As ptesented, this film doesnt give eenough closure about the events depicted but it does do a good job explaining the deficiencies in the law that allowed for these people to create a family cult by taking advantage of those loopholes.

Bottom Line – Strange documentary that gives too broad an overview of how the cult worked. The interviews were good but not as impactful as one would hope from such a horrific story. The story doesn’t seem to give much closure to the experience yet still manages to outline the deficiencies of the Australian laws at the time which resulted in the ability to take advantage of it.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Anne Hamilton-Byrne acquired fourteen infants and young children between about 1968 and 1975. Some were the natural children of members of The Family; others had been obtained through irregular adoptions arranged by lawyers, doctors and social workers within the group who could bypass the normal processes. The children’s identities were changed using false birth certificates or deed poll, all being given the surname ‘Hamilton-Byrne’ and dressed alike even to the extent of their hair being dyed uniformly blonde.(From Wikipedia)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy

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