Brendan Ellis

In director Ron Howard’s period epic, a young free-spirited Irish woman from an affluent Protestant family spontaneously befriends a street-smart commoner gypped by her family’s hostile land takeovers before the two escape together to America for a new life during the 19th century Oklahoma land rush.

In pre-famine Ireland, when poverty and magic were rife, introverted farm girl Maura discovers a magical world of the imagination through the mysterious wanderer Scarf Michael. When her isolated rural community accuses her of witchcraft, she turns to her own supernatural powers for protection.

Mixing classroom dramatization with documentary material, interviews with former students who recall barbaric punishments in the name of learning, and a 1932 newsreel of a triumphant Catholic congress in Dublin, this piece poses a challenging and controversial exploration of the Christian Brothers' education system in the 50s.