Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7165 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-01-12
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 89 minutes

Synopsis
Dustbin Baby is a powerful family drama which tells the heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting story of teenager April (Dakota Blue Richards), who sets out to discover where she came from, and on the way discovers where she belongs. April was abandoned in a dustbin as a baby. Now on her 14th birthday, after a row, she walks out on her foster mother, Marion (Juliet Stevenson) determined to discover her past, remembering and revisiting the people who have shaped her life. As Marion searches frantically for her, their journeys take them on a course that will change their lives for ever.

Extra features: Behind the scenes

Customer Reviews

Why haven't more people seen this?
I seem to have been one of the few people who saw this in full when it was aired last Christmas - and loved it so much that I not only bought it on DVD but also read the book by Jaqueline Wilson.

It succeeds both as a film and as an adaptation of a book, mostly due to the sensitive direction and the outstanding central performances.

Juliet Stevenson is as reliably watchable as ever, but the standout performance for me was Dakota Blue Richards as 14-year old April. I had been impressed with her in The Golden Compass (although not so much with the film itself), but she is utterly believable here and astonishingly accomplished considering her age. She's so good that in the several dramatic scenes she has with Juliet Stevenson, I found myself watching her rather than her much more experienced and famous colleague!

Although the film deals with potentially difficult issues, it does this in a restrained and subtle way and still succeeds in being a 'feel-good'experience.

To my mind, it's one of the few recent instances I can recall of the BBC making a thoroughly enjoyable drama for the whole family to sit down and watch together. I only wish that it had been publicised more widely, and hope that it gets a repeat showing this Christmas.

Buy it now - you won't regret it!

A must-have for Dakota Blue fans.
I enjoyed this movie very much. Although I purchased it only because it stars Dakota Blue Richards, it turned-out to be an exciting story with a spot-on message about what it really means to care for someone. If you are a fan of either Richards or Juliet Stevenson, you will be amply rewarded. Wholesome (yet well-produced) movies like this are at a premium in the United States, so I am very happy to have stumbled across this British version of Amazon. I now have a whole world of choices other than the standard American fare of pointless violence and monotonous materialism. The English-speaking people of the world are benefitted greatly by the existence of British media-- however, there are not nearly enough films starring Dakota Blue Richards. I think she should be in EVERY movie.

Dustbin Baby DVD
Purchased this with the book, as my daughter loves Jacqueline Wilson..she really enjoyed the film.