Born Equal
Encyclopedia
Born Equal is a television film produced for the BBC
exploring aspects of poverty, race, inequality, homelessness, immigration and class in modern Britain. Written and directed by Dominic Savage
and starring Colin Firth
, Robert Carlyle
, David Oyelowo
, Anne-Marie Duff
, and Emilia Fox
, it was likened to a British version of the Oscar-winning Crash
. Its working title was London/The London Project--and another proposed title was To Have and Have Not--but by the time of its broadcast on BBC 1 on 17 December 2006 it had been renamed.
Among other noteworthy features, the film was not scripted--the actors improvised their lines with the cameras rolling, working with no script and no rehearsals.
) lives in central London with his wife Laura (Emilia Fox
), who is expecting a baby, in a large house in an upperclass estate. After making a huge financial killing with his City of London firm, Mark--having refused to give a homeless man any cash--begins to feel guilty about his success and life of luxury. He returns to find the homeless man, "sleeping rough" in the Underground, and gives him 100 pounds. Mark resolves to use his financial position to help the poor. It becomes clear that he is also using his newfound concern with the poor to escape from his wife and the coming baby, and that he feels trapped and frightened by his life.
Robert (Robert Carlyle
), a violent repeat-offender; has been released from prison; he moves into a hostel in London, where he meets the pregnant Michelle (Anne-Marie Duff
), who has been placed in the same hostel by social workers because her husband has been beating her. Robert and Michelle form a romantic relationship of sorts, while Robert continues his quest to find his mother, whom he has not seen in many years.
Also living in the hostel is Nigerian journalist Yemi (David Oyelowo
) with his wife (Nikki Amuka-Bird
)and child, working as kitchen help in a restaurant and desperate to raise 5,000 pounds to bring his father from Nigeria to London, before the political gangs who drove Yemi out of Nigeria kill the father.
Mark's attempts to help the poor ultimately fail, leading to disaster for himself and others. He has worked with the same social workers who placed Michelle in the hostel; he helps the social workers to place 17-year-old homeless girl Zoe there. He becomes inordinately close to Zoe, almost falling into a sexual relationship with her, before rejecting her advances and returning home to his wife, now heavily pregnant and distraught at his absences, convinced that he is having an affair.
Robert's relationship with Michelle falls apart when he finds that his mother died while he was in prison. He is not there when Michelle goes into labor. Instead, walking back to the hostel, he is almost hit by a car--driven by Mark, and carrying Mark and his wife Laura home after a dinner out at which they have resolved their differences and he has told her what he has been doing--tells her he had lost his way and apologizes to her for having been so cruel in his neglect. Enraged to the point of psychosis by the near-accident, Robert follows Mark and Laura home, knife in hand. When Mark comes to the door, Robert stabs him.
With Mark dead and Robert in prison, Laura and Michelle both give birth--their babies, born fatherless, are born equal.
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
exploring aspects of poverty, race, inequality, homelessness, immigration and class in modern Britain. Written and directed by Dominic Savage
Dominic Savage
Dominic Savage is a BAFTA-award-winning director, writer and actor who was born in 1962 in Margate.Originally a child actor — making several television appearances and featuring in Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon — Savage moved into writing and directing in his mid-thirties, going on to win BAFTAs...
and starring Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
, Robert Carlyle
Robert Carlyle
Robert Carlyle, OBE is a Scottish film and television actor. He is known for a variety of roles including those in Trainspotting, Hamish Macbeth, The Full Monty, The World Is Not Enough, Angela's Ashes, The 51st State, and 28 Weeks Later...
, David Oyelowo
David Oyelowo
- Background :Oyelowo was born in Oxford, England of Nigerian descent. He is married to actress Jessica Oyelowo and they have three sons.Oyelowo first attended a youth theatre after being invited by a girl to whom he was attracted. He then studied Theatre Studies for A level and his teacher...
, Anne-Marie Duff
Anne-Marie Duff
Anne-Marie Duff is an English actress best known for playing Fiona Gallagher in Shameless, and Elizabeth I in The Virgin Queen.-Early life:...
, and Emilia Fox
Emilia Fox
Emilia Rose Elizabeth Fox is an award-winning English actress, known for her role as Dr. Nikki Alexander on BBC crime drama Silent Witness, having joined the cast in 2004 following the departure of Amanda Burton. She also appears as Morgause in the BBC's Merlin beginning in the programme's second...
, it was likened to a British version of the Oscar-winning Crash
Crash (2004 film)
Crash is a 2004 American drama film co-written, produced, and directed by Paul Haggis. The film is about racial and social tensions in Los Angeles, California. A self-described "passion piece" for Haggis, Crash was inspired by a real life incident in which his Porsche was carjacked outside a video...
. Its working title was London/The London Project--and another proposed title was To Have and Have Not--but by the time of its broadcast on BBC 1 on 17 December 2006 it had been renamed.
Among other noteworthy features, the film was not scripted--the actors improvised their lines with the cameras rolling, working with no script and no rehearsals.
Plot
Mark (Colin FirthColin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
) lives in central London with his wife Laura (Emilia Fox
Emilia Fox
Emilia Rose Elizabeth Fox is an award-winning English actress, known for her role as Dr. Nikki Alexander on BBC crime drama Silent Witness, having joined the cast in 2004 following the departure of Amanda Burton. She also appears as Morgause in the BBC's Merlin beginning in the programme's second...
), who is expecting a baby, in a large house in an upperclass estate. After making a huge financial killing with his City of London firm, Mark--having refused to give a homeless man any cash--begins to feel guilty about his success and life of luxury. He returns to find the homeless man, "sleeping rough" in the Underground, and gives him 100 pounds. Mark resolves to use his financial position to help the poor. It becomes clear that he is also using his newfound concern with the poor to escape from his wife and the coming baby, and that he feels trapped and frightened by his life.
Robert (Robert Carlyle
Robert Carlyle
Robert Carlyle, OBE is a Scottish film and television actor. He is known for a variety of roles including those in Trainspotting, Hamish Macbeth, The Full Monty, The World Is Not Enough, Angela's Ashes, The 51st State, and 28 Weeks Later...
), a violent repeat-offender; has been released from prison; he moves into a hostel in London, where he meets the pregnant Michelle (Anne-Marie Duff
Anne-Marie Duff
Anne-Marie Duff is an English actress best known for playing Fiona Gallagher in Shameless, and Elizabeth I in The Virgin Queen.-Early life:...
), who has been placed in the same hostel by social workers because her husband has been beating her. Robert and Michelle form a romantic relationship of sorts, while Robert continues his quest to find his mother, whom he has not seen in many years.
Also living in the hostel is Nigerian journalist Yemi (David Oyelowo
David Oyelowo
- Background :Oyelowo was born in Oxford, England of Nigerian descent. He is married to actress Jessica Oyelowo and they have three sons.Oyelowo first attended a youth theatre after being invited by a girl to whom he was attracted. He then studied Theatre Studies for A level and his teacher...
) with his wife (Nikki Amuka-Bird
Nikki Amuka-Bird
Nikki Amuka-Bird is a Nigerian born British actress of the stage and screen. Her theatrical credits include Welcome to Thebes ; Twelfth Night ; World Music ; Top Girls ; A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest and The Servant of Two Masters Nikki Amuka-Bird is a Nigerian born British actress of the...
)and child, working as kitchen help in a restaurant and desperate to raise 5,000 pounds to bring his father from Nigeria to London, before the political gangs who drove Yemi out of Nigeria kill the father.
Mark's attempts to help the poor ultimately fail, leading to disaster for himself and others. He has worked with the same social workers who placed Michelle in the hostel; he helps the social workers to place 17-year-old homeless girl Zoe there. He becomes inordinately close to Zoe, almost falling into a sexual relationship with her, before rejecting her advances and returning home to his wife, now heavily pregnant and distraught at his absences, convinced that he is having an affair.
Robert's relationship with Michelle falls apart when he finds that his mother died while he was in prison. He is not there when Michelle goes into labor. Instead, walking back to the hostel, he is almost hit by a car--driven by Mark, and carrying Mark and his wife Laura home after a dinner out at which they have resolved their differences and he has told her what he has been doing--tells her he had lost his way and apologizes to her for having been so cruel in his neglect. Enraged to the point of psychosis by the near-accident, Robert follows Mark and Laura home, knife in hand. When Mark comes to the door, Robert stabs him.
With Mark dead and Robert in prison, Laura and Michelle both give birth--their babies, born fatherless, are born equal.
Cast
- Robert CarlyleRobert CarlyleRobert Carlyle, OBE is a Scottish film and television actor. He is known for a variety of roles including those in Trainspotting, Hamish Macbeth, The Full Monty, The World Is Not Enough, Angela's Ashes, The 51st State, and 28 Weeks Later...
– Robert - Peter O'Connor – Hostel Manager
- Colin FirthColin FirthSirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
– Mark - Nicholas Burns – Michael
- Pearce QuigleyPearce QuigleyPearce Quigley is an English actor of the stage and screen. His theatre credits include The Seagull ; Paul ; Journey's End ; My Night with Reg and Dealer's Choice ; Feelgood ; Blue Heart ; Shopping and Fucking Pearce Quigley (born Salford, England) is an English actor of the stage and screen. His...
– Beggar 1 - Anne-Marie DuffAnne-Marie DuffAnne-Marie Duff is an English actress best known for playing Fiona Gallagher in Shameless, and Elizabeth I in The Virgin Queen.-Early life:...
– Michelle - Gemma Barrett – Danielle
- Charlie Creed-MilesCharlie Creed-MilesCharlie Creed-Miles is an English actor and musician. He had a daughter with Samantha Morton in 2000.- Filmography :* You And I .... Ian* Harry Brown .... Hickock* King Arthur .... Ganis...
– Man in Hostel - Emilia FoxEmilia FoxEmilia Rose Elizabeth Fox is an award-winning English actress, known for her role as Dr. Nikki Alexander on BBC crime drama Silent Witness, having joined the cast in 2004 following the departure of Amanda Burton. She also appears as Morgause in the BBC's Merlin beginning in the programme's second...
– Laura - David OyelowoDavid Oyelowo- Background :Oyelowo was born in Oxford, England of Nigerian descent. He is married to actress Jessica Oyelowo and they have three sons.Oyelowo first attended a youth theatre after being invited by a girl to whom he was attracted. He then studied Theatre Studies for A level and his teacher...
– Yemi - Nikki Amuka-BirdNikki Amuka-BirdNikki Amuka-Bird is a Nigerian born British actress of the stage and screen. Her theatrical credits include Welcome to Thebes ; Twelfth Night ; World Music ; Top Girls ; A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest and The Servant of Two Masters Nikki Amuka-Bird is a Nigerian born British actress of the...
– Itshe - Anne-Marie Bossman – Adanna
- Megan DoddsMegan DoddsMegan Lynne Dodds is an American stage and television actress.-Biography:Megan Dodds was born in Sacramento, California, and after High School she enrolled in a community college where she was cast as Bananas in John Guare's The House of Blue Leaves...
– Anastasia - Toby KebbellToby KebbellTobias Alistair P. "Toby" Kebbell is a British actor.-Life and career:Kebbell, the fourth of five children, was born in South Elmsall, on the A638 between Doncaster and Wakefield, Yorkshire, but grew up in Nottinghamshire...
– Beggar 2 - Antonio Pelayo – Kitchen Cleaner
- Julia DavisJulia DavisJulia Davis is an English comedy writer and performer, best known for writing and starring in the BBC Three comedy Nighty Night.-Background:...
– Sally - Nichola BurleyNichola BurleyNichola Ann Burley is an English actress best known for her roles in Born Equal, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Goldplated, Donkey Punch and Carly in StreetDance 3D.-Early life:...
– Zoe - Joanne Adams – Shop Assistant
- Emily WoofEmily WoofEmily Woof , is an English actress and author, known for her roles in such films as The Full Monty, The Woodlanders, Velvet Goldmine, Wondrous Oblivion, Silent Cry and The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse....
– Sandra - Ria Haydon – Midwife