Moniaive writer’s story on big screen

The Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre is showing “Kizzy”, a BBC production based on the children’s story “The Diddakoi” written by Rumer Godden, who lived in Moniaive, Dumfriesshire from 1978 to 1998.

Rumer Godden was the author of over 60 books, several of which have been made into films, including the bestselling novel “Black Narcissus”, which was made into an award-winning Powel & Pressburger film.

“The Diddakoi” was awarded the Whitbread Award for Children’s Literature in 1972 and the BBC made it into a six part children’s TV series, first broadcast in 1976, renaming it “Kizzy”.

The adaptation tells the moving story of orphaned traveller Kizzy and her trials and her courage as she fights to be accepted by the community. Kizzy’s life is turned upside down when her Grandmother dies and Kizzy is forced into the system which she is totally unprepared for and she faces loneliness, bullying and fear.

It is a sad tale and like much of Rumer Godden’s work, has an unflinching focus on characters usually considered marginal.

Godden spent much of her childhood and early adult years in India, beginning to write stories and novels while working as a dance teacher. She continued writing after returning to England in the 1940s, and when she was seventy she came to live in Moniaive until her death in 1998.

Her daughter, Jane Murray-Flutter, will be present at the screenings and will answer questions on an informal basis.

The Robert Burns Centre is putting on two screenings of “Kizzy” on Thursday 31 May, one at 10.4am and a later screening at 5pm.

For anyone that thinks the morning is an unusual time to go to the cinema, the Film Theatre’s Thursday morning “Coffee Club” screenings are its most popular and always the first to sell out. Doors open at 10am and you are welcomed with a cup of fresh coffee and a homemade tray-bake before settling down to watch the film at 10.45am.

To book tickets, please call the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre, t: 01387 264 808.