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Scrubbers
1980s borstal drama – billed as the female Scum – featuring Amanda York and Kathy Burke as inmates in a ruthless women’s prison.
Director: Mai Zetterling
Overview
Escaping from their open borstal, Annetta plans to visit her baby in a convent, while Carol is happy to be caught and locked up again, this time in a closed borstal with her former lover Doreen. When Annetta is arrested and sent to the same borstal, she assumes it was Carol who grassed her up and plans violent revenge. Lonely and vulnerable, Carol is offered protection by fellow inmate Eddie.
The success of Scum saw screenwriter Roy Minton re-enlisted to scribe this female variant, exploring the destructive rivalries of a women’s prison. Amanda York and Kathy Burke are among the inmates waging conflict with the warden, fellow prisoners and their own pent-up emotions. Scrubbers offers an interesting and at times uncomfortable depiction of lesbian relationships and institutional oppression. Its director, former Swedish screen-star Mai Zetterling, adapts Minton’s screenplay with gusto, avoiding the campy histrionics often found in later female-led prison dramas.
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