Mrs Robinson (no cert, documentary, 94mins) Director: Aoife Kelleher
FORMER Irish President Mary Robinson was definitely a rare breed – a lawyer turned politician who managed to combine air of authority-conjuring intellect and ability with an appealing and approachable lightness of touch based in genuine empathy for those she represented.
Co Mayo-born Robinson (80) was Ireland’s first female Uachtarán, serving between 1990 and 1997 before leaving to become UN High Commissioner. She is now a respected voice in the conversation on global climate change and heads The Elders, a human rights-orientated group of global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela.
Despite a self-confessed shyness, Robinson’s ability to put people at ease while fulfilling stressful public-facing roles is all too apparent throughout Aoife Kelleher’s new bio-doc, Mrs Robinson, made in access-granting cooperation with its subject.
The film combines contemporary interviews with the Ballina woman speaking on various key moments in her illustrious career – defending the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement’s campaign to legalise contraception in the 1970s while serving in Seanad Éireann, her determination to become a “voice for the voiceless” as an independent President, making history as the first Irish head of state to shake hands with the Queen and Gerry Adams, speaking out against American human rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay post-9/11 while UN Commissioner – with an abundance of archive footage, including home movies of her as a child and young woman.
Robinson is shown on the verge of tears several times, when confronted by distressing scenes of famine and genocide, or even just speaking on subjects she cares deeply about, like the environment and human rights.
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In interview, Robinson admits to being mortified on occasion when her emotions got the better of her, yet the film shows us that such displays of humanity were undoubtedly part of her appeal: she was the ultimate rarity, at top politician who seemed to care about people more than power, with an uncanny ability to inspire others with both her words and actions.
Robinson remains something of unicorn in Irish politics in that her career has been almost completely scandal free – resigning her presidency three months prematurely to work at the UN and some ill-advised comments to the press regarding the mental state of a Dubai princess are about the height of her ‘controversies’.
Both are addressed towards the end of a film that’s at its best when covering Robinson’s exciting rise to power from the 70s through the 90s, and shedding light on the dynamic between her public and family life: husband, Nick, a Protestant whom her parents did not approve of, is on hand to offer his perspective here.
Yes, it has the distinctly ‘safe’ feel of an officially sanctioned project, but really, is there a ‘harder hitting’ piece to be made on this particular subject? I think not.
Here’s to you, Mrs Robinson.