Ladybird Ladybird

Maggie meets Jorge, an illegal immigrant from Paraguay at a karaoke bar. We learn that Maggie has four children by four different fathers. One night while living in a women’s shelter, the impulsive Maggie went out and left the children. Fire then breaks out in the room and the children barely escape with their lives resulting in the authorities taking her children into care. Jorge supports Maggie in her efforts to get her kids back. But Maggie is bitter, and her aggressive behavior works against her in every encounter. She and Jorge have two children together who are also removed from her custody, the second one right after birth … Ken Loach’s most emotional film was based on a real social work case. He uses melodramatic means and sometimes fairy-tale twists to tell the story of the title character’s seemingly hopeless battle for family happiness from her subjective standpoint. In her first film appearance, Crissy Rock, herself the mother of six children, won the Silver Bear at the 1984 Berlin Film Festival for her extraordinarily powerful performance as Maggie.