Cotton Mary
– A British family is trapped between culture, tradition, and the colonial sins of the past...
17 Dec 1999
English
Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. Contains some adult material. Parents are urged to learn more about the film before taking their young children with them.
Ismail Merchant, Madhur Jaffrey(co-director)
Alexandra Viets
Greta Scacchi, Madhur Jaffrey, James Wilby, Sarah Badel
1954, the Malabar Coast. British and Anglo-Indian identities blur when an English-woman with a neglectful husband births a sickly baby. Cotton Mary, a hospital aide and moralizing Anglophile who claims her father was a British officer, takes over the infant's care and, without a word to the mother, takes the baby daily to her sister to nurse. Mary moves into the English household, taking over more and more duties as she plays on the mother's fatigue and lack of spousal counsel: in effect, Mary colonizes the English household while she pilfers its stores and tells tall tales to her own family. For how long can Mary sustain her rule before the Englishwoman stands on her own feet?
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