Society has always shown us discrimination of
various orders, there
are people being discriminated against every day for
having a different skin
tone, for being female, for
having a different sexual orientation, for having a
physical or psychological disability, for having less financial
possibilities,
everything is a reason to discriminate. This film shows us
that from the moment a person has a different pronunciation
(or a different accent) in
relation to the Queen's English (the English that is “proper” to speak) is immediately associated
with a person without possessions, without
culture,
without the right to be respected by others.
This film has the
background of London during the the 1920s. It
is a different social context of today, but
equal in certain details. Discrimination
is one of the various topics
that are similar. Carrying discrimination discussed
in the film to our days (and to our country - Portugal) we found
some practical examples of this: even
today the
accent of
the islands (Madeira, mainly) is associated to simple
people,
rural, uneducated, without
possessions; this
happens also in the interior
of Portugal, or even in the North or
South. Whatever the accent or
pronunciation there, are always elements associated which
will define all the people
of a certain area: it is
called discrimination. And, despite
being already a topic
discussed frequently on
the media,
discrimination is still very clear in the daily actions of many
people, everywhere.
