May
33rd - a film by Guy Hibbert for BBC ONE
In
Guy Hibbert's film May 33rd, Lia Williams stars
as Ella, a young woman whose disturbing and tortured upbringing
forces her into a living nightmare.
The
film is an exploration of the consequences of repeated ritual abuse
as seen through the eyes of a young woman whose personality has
fragmented into five different people.
A fictional
drama based on extensive research, May 33rd follows Guy Hibbert's
previous film No Child Of Mine, a true story about child prostitution
and abuse, supported by child protection agencies, which caused
much controversy when it was screened in 1996.
It
is directed by David Attwood (Fidel!) and produced by
Hilary Bevan Jones (State of Play) for BBC ONE.
While
trying to escape her family - a small group of relatives and their
friends who have abused her since childhood - Ella visits an osteopath
to relieve the pains in her body.
When
Edward (Soren Byder) applies pressure to certain parts of
Ella's body, it triggers her into different personalities.
Through
Ella and her other identities the drama explores the chilling and
shocking condition Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), formerly
known as Multiple Personality Disorder, which is a condition associated
with ritual abuse.
Writer
Guy Hibbert
says: "Five years after writing No Child Of Mine, I learnt
of the condition of Dissociative Identity Disorder and the real
life cases of young women from all over the UK who had suffered
from it as a result of ritual abuse.
"The
research led me to professionals working in this field and the victims
of this horrific cruelty."
He
continues: "One of my reasons for writing this drama is to
encourage a greater understanding of both the condition of Dissociative
Identity Disorder and its causes.
"Through
my research I discovered that because these causes are so cruel,
society prefers to disbelieve the victims because it cannot cope
with the truth."
Producer
Hilary Bevan Jones says: "This story describes a personal nightmare.
As Ella herself says, 'It's like living in a world that doesn't
exist in anyone else's world, like it's May 33rd or something and
everyone else is in the real day'."
Jane
Tranter, Controller of Drama Commissioning, says: "May 33rd
is a bold and subtle exploration of a condition that affects many
women in the UK yet remains shrouded in mystery and fear.
"It
follows dramas such as Care, Out Of Control and England Expects
– risky films which examine contemporary issues in an uncompromising
way."
May
33rd is an Endor production for BBC ONE. The executive producers
are Guy Hibbert and Julie Gardner, Head of Drama, BBC Wales.
Notes
to Editors
Dissociation
is a mental process, which produces a lack of connection in a person's
thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity.
Dissociative
disorders are often referred to as a highly creative survival technique
because they allow individuals enduring 'hopeless' circumstances
to preserve some areas of healthy functioning.
Over
time, however, with a child who has been repeatedly physically and
sexually assaulted, defensive dissociation becomes reinforced and
conditioned.
Repeated
dissociation may result in a series of separate entities, or mental
states, which may eventually take on identities of their own. These
entities may become the internal 'personality states' of a DID system.
For
more information about dissociative disorders, visit the Sidran
Foundation website - www.sidran.org.
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