PAVEE LACKEEN (THE TRAVELLER GIRL)
Ireland, 2005, 89 minutes, Colour.
Winnie Maughan, Rose Maughan, Rosie Maughan.
Directed by Perry Ogden.
Pavee Lackeen (The Traveller Girl) is a small-budget film made in and around Dublin. It was directed by photographer and cinematographer Perry Ogden. The film focuses on a family who live in a trailer in a rather dismal area outside Dublin. They live in a trailer, a mother with ten children. The mother is illiterate and depends on her children as well as friends. There are some sympathetic social workers as well as some hard-headed and hard-hearted social workers.
The film is a glimpse into the Travellers’ way of life, their being on the road, the difficulties in settling – and, especially, the prejudice of ordinary citizens against these gypsies whom they do not understand and of whom they disapprove.
1.An Irish drama? The Travellers in Ireland? The locations on the periphery of Dublin? The Irish meaning? Universal application?
2.The film’s style, the documentary and photography contributions to the atmosphere? The dramas – and improvisation? A particular docudrama style? The use of the locations, the framing of the characters and the scenes? The trailer world, the periphery of Dublin, industrial, swamps, due for development? The contrast with schools, the shops? The musical score?
3.The title and the focus on Winnie? The Travellers?
4.The Travellers and their background in Ireland, public attitudes towards them, on the move, the trailers? Their lack of education? Jobs? Settling or not? Prejudice against them? The work of the agencies?
5.The portrait of the Maughan family, the mother, her ten children, the husband gone, her having to cope? Unable to read? The range of children, in prison, not wanting to go to school, the glue-sniffing …?
6.The agencies, the development of the area, the letters for the Maughan family to move, issues of money and their inability to move, calling the police, the transfer up the street so that they would not have to pay? Orders?
7.The portrait of the mother, her character, having to cope, inability to cope, her friends and discussions, the explanation she gave of what had to happen? The social worker – and the worker who was a Traveller in the past? Help?
8.Winnie, not wanting to go to school, wandering around, carrying the water, looking at the shops, getting the gift from the friend, the shoplifting?
9.The glimpses of the young children, the lack of control, the glue-sniffing, the poverty of their lives?
10.The social workers, the sympathetic social worker and her help? The ordinary workers, getting the family to move?
11.A film of observation, of a group in society, of a way of life, a different way of life? Illuminating as regards the life of Travellers?
