Shirley Adams (2009)

Runtime: 120 minutes

Drama

Reviews
Hollywood Reporter

Cast
Keenan Arrison
Denise Newman

Tagline

A portrait of a mother

Logline

The story of a woman who looses her family to violence and poverty, but gains her own sense of self worth.

Synopsis

Shirley Adams spends her days caring for
her disabled son, Donovan - he was shot in
the back of the neck on his way home from
school one afternoon over a year ago.
Since then the Adams family has lost all their
worldly posessions to medical bills. Shirley has
no money, no job and no husband - he left
shooter is one of Donovan’s childhood friends.
Her reaction to the betrayal is so overwhelm-
ing that she chooses not to tell Donovan in
fear of further damaging his already unstable
emotional state.
Determined to make a change in their lives,
Shirley actively decides to embrace their new
circumstances, hoping that Donovan will fol-
low her example.
But his mental state continues to deteriorate
and Tamsin is unsuccessful in distracting him
without a trace months ago. Shirley’s life now
consists of trying to make ends meet by shop-
lifting and relying on the charity of others.
When a young, eager occupational thera-
pist, Tamsin Ranger, comes into their lives,
Shirley hopes that it might lift her son’s spirits
and finally put them on path to some form of
stability.
At the same time Shirley receives a phone
call one afternoon informing her that Dono-
vans case is finally going to trial, but the glory
is short lived when Shirley discovers that the
from his ever-present disability. Shirley is even-
tually left without an sign of the family she
once had.
Set in Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Town, Shirley Ad-
am’s story is symptomatic of the relationship
between violence and poverty – the destruc-
tion of an entire family is related to one single
incident that cannot be erased or repaired.
Riddled with the socio-political and racial
tensions that plague these Cape Flats slums
Shirley Adams is the story of one woman’s
amazing strength and self sacrifice.