An Angel at My Table

“Based on the autobiographies of Janet Frame”

Janet Frame grows up poor in rural New Zealand, in a family that loses two of its children before she is out of her teens. Jane Campion follows her through three stages, from the child (Alexia Keogh) to the teenager (Karen Fergusson) to the adult Janet (Kerry Fox), who is shy, red-haired and shut inside her own head. Janet starts writing while she is held in a mental institution, and the book is how she tries to get out.