The makers of The Taste of Mango, a very moving documentary, after which my sister was in floods of tears (thanks, Chloe Abrahams), gave us all a rather cute mango pin as a keepsake. Started to think a souvenir from each film would be cool. Then I saw Hoard and thought, perhaps not!
Two of the films I saw at the Festival this year have had uncanny parallels to my real Grey Gardens* life. It's been a bit mind-blowing.
My name is Chantal and I’m a hoarder.
Hostage to a frugal upbringing and a vivid imagination, my sister and I (just to make us even odder, we’re twins) were the original recyclers, finding a new purpose for everything. More likely to collect from skips than add to them. I remember that immortal line of my Dad's: 'Don’t let Lyn look in the skip!' But then who puts teddies in skips? Lots of people it turns out.
But, after seeing Hoard, I hereby vow never to save another bit of used tinfoil. You know when you're thinking of collecting shiny, translucent, coloured sweet wrappers from your Quality Street or Roses chocolates to use to make Christmas decorations, don't. It’s a slippery slope and I’m already quite near the bottom. I will not pick up every lost toy in the street. [A month on I’ve taken a two-bus journey to pick up a teddy-bear that had been appearing on Freecycle for a month. A week on from that and sister has brought home a teddy as tall as I am from another skip. And don't even mention the panda! And that's not even the one I ended up taking to a friend's wedding because he was the last toy left at a jumble sale.] I blame my inclination to empathise with the inanimate as well as animate. It is incredibly difficult when you can see an alternative use or place for something and even harder when you don’t because then it’s down to you to adopt whatever mislaid, discarded item you come across. Of course, I know why I identify with the lost and/or unwanted. But knowing that doesn’t stop me.
The chaotic home environment in Hoard, as well as looking frighteningly like our house reminded me a little of the TV version of Jacqueline Wilson’s The Illustrated Mum, brilliantly brought to life by Michelle Collins, Holliday Grainger and particularly, Alice Connor. This is a bit more than that and possibly a bit too much.
In Hoard, the mother, Cynthia (brilliantly played by Hayley Squires) and daughter, Maria (Lily-Beau Leach) are everything to each other but Cynthia is a hoarder who sometimes loses touch with reality, or rather her reality is different from everyone else's.
The world inside the home is in some ways, make-believe and magical but in others, a minefield. And as the child, Maria, grows older, the glitter starts to look tarnished and the home environment seems to be more a tawdry collection of other people’s rubbish than an enchanted kingdom of found treasure. It's also a lesson in how bit by bit, a situation worsens and you adapt to things like having to kick through piles of newspapers as you come in the door (at this point, I whisper to sis, ‘Better tidy up when we get home’). The disadvantages of this way of life start to outweigh the advantages.
Hoarding is not the only issue here. Nor is it ever. It’s a symptom. There’s love too but it’s a selfish, excluding kind of love. We were too stupid as children to realise that ‘us against the world’ was not a battle we could win. Maria starts to understand too, that her life is not like other people’s and, just perhaps, it’s not as good. Sometimes children need stability and normality as well as excitement.
You sense that something’s gotta give. Social workers become involved and Maria is removed from her mother's care and placed with a foster family, in which Samantha Spiro handles with aplomb the thankless task of being the responsible mother figure, Michelle.
Teenage Maria (Saura Lightfoot-Leon) has a wild friendship with kindred spirit, Laraib (Deba Hekmat). This madcap sorority of two seems to work although you sense that things could spiral out of control quite quickly.
Then, a former foster son turns up, Michael (Joseph Quinn) and sets the cat among the pigeons. His involvement with Maria seems to turn into a pissing contest (though luckily only metaphorically as Michael would be an also-ran, you'll find out why when you see the movie) where they try to out-extreme each other. What was it they were spitting on and then licking up? Yuck.
* Saw this a few years ago. A documentary on some eccentric relatives of Jackie Onassis. Sort of compelling.
* Has found fame or infamy in Stranger Things, which I haven't seen.
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