A tribute to women often forgotten
Bread and Roses
Directed by Gaylene Preston
Written by Graeme Tetley and Gaylene Preston
Featuring Genevieve Picot, Mick Rose, Donna Akersten, Tina Regtien and Erik Thomson
Cinema Nova, Melbourne
Reviewed by Bronwen Beechey
"Why can't you be an ordinary mother?" asks Sonja Davies' daughter as she reluctantly accompanies her mother on a quest to get signatures for a petition.
"Because", Davies replies simply, "there are some things that have to be done."
One can imagine the way Hollywood, in its current backlash mode, would portray a mother who dared suggest that her political activities might occasionally take priority over her family. In contrast, Bread and Roses made originally as a two-part TV series to celebrate the 100th anniversary of New Zealand women winning the right to vote, is an unapologetic celebration of the life of a political activist.
Davies' long political career has included involvement in union, peace and women's issues. She was the first woman to head the NZ Congress of Trade Unions and was also a Labour MP until recently.
Bread and Roses traces herlife from childhood until the early 1960s and the winning of her first political office as chair"man" of the local hospital board.
An illegitimate child, Davies (Genevieve Picot) is keenly aware of her "outsider" status in her middle-class family. Her instinctive sympathy with the poor and oppressed leads her to radical politics and pacifism.
Following a disastrous early marriage, she trains as a nurse, where she becomes aware of the tragic effects of the sexual double standard for women — one of her first tasks is to lay out the body of a young women dead from a backyard abortion.
Her outspokenness frequently gets her into trouble with the hospital hierarchy. In one memorable scene she confronts an angry serviceman who has returned from a long absence to discover his wife in the maternity ward, asking him to "look me in the eye and tell me you've been faithful all this time". The comment has her relegated to scrubbing floors, and a later attempt to unionise her fellow nurses nearly costs her her job.
Following arelationship with an American soldier, Davies is left to bear his child in a society intolerant of single motherhood. She also contracts tuberculosis through nursing and nearly dies.
Following the war and marriage to Charlie Davies (Mick Rose), she become involved in the local Labour Party branch (which also has trouble dealing with an independent and outspoken woman). When a diverse group of local women organise a campaign to stop the closure of a local railway line, Davies discovers the power of civil disobedience and the strength of women organising themselves.
Despite its length, Bread and Roses is always compelling, largely due to the outstanding performance of Genevieve Picot as Davies. While the choice of an Australian actor was a controversial one in NZ, Picot brings a passion and intelligence to the role which makes it impossible to imagine anyone else doing it. She is ably supported by the rest of the cast, particularly Mick Rose as Davies loving and supportive, if occasionally exasperated, husband. The cinematography, set design and music combine to evoke the period accurately, without reactionary nostalgia.
Bread and Roses is unique not only in its portrayal of a woman activist, but also in the way it pays tribute to a generation of women often forgotten; those whose suffering and struggles paved the way for the feminist movement that followed.