| The Arbor | |
|---|---|
 British release poster | |
| Directed by | Clio Barnard |
| Produced by | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $126,182 [1] |
The Arbor is a 2010 British film about Andrea Dunbar, directed by Clio Barnard. [2] [3] [4] The film uses actors lip-synching to interviews with Dunbar and her family, and concentrates on the strained relationship between Dunbar and her daughter Lorraine. [5] [6] [7]
The film was shot in and around Brafferton Arbor, a street on the Buttershaw Estate in Bradford, West Yorkshire, where Andrea Dunbar lived and worked.
The film was inspired [8] by so-called verbatim theatre, with audio recordings of Lorraine Dunbar and other family members, lip-synched by professional actors in set-designed environments. Barnard had used a similar technique for her 1998 short film Random Acts of Intimacy. [9] The film also includes from Dunbar’s autobiographical play The Arbor performed outdoors by a mix of actors and estate residents, the 1986 film Rita, Sue and Bob Too written by Dunbar, Robin Soans' 2000 play A State Affair, as well as archive footage. [10] [9]
Barnard's original intention for this film was not to make it about Andrea Dunbar, but after speaking with her eldest daughter, Lorraine, that is what emerged. The film was intended to be about the changes that had come to the Brafferton Arbor. [9]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 96% based on 46 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Smart and inventive, The Arbor offers some intensely memorable twists on tired documentary tropes." [11]
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