Introduction -
An insightful, unfussy portrait of deep grief and faith and the story of the awful failings of the Metropolitan police.
Name of film: Two Daughters
Director: Jermaine Blake
Year: 2022
Official Photo
Review
Mina and Chris are the parents - Mina’s daughter, Bibaa, Mina and Chris’s daughter, Nicole, were murdered in a north London park in June 2020, as Bibaa celebrated her birthday with friends into the night. A powerful irony is that Bibaa was following Covid rules by having her party outdoors.
Mina is a priest, a confident public speaker and an extraordinary woman. Through the full spectrum of grief, which she reveals here with candour and bravery, she does not lose her faith - on the contrary, it is through faith that remarkably, she is able to arrive at a place of forgiveness for the brutal young male killer now in jail. The killer claimed, in court, that he had made a deal with the Devil - that is, if he sacrificed women, lottery millions would soon come his way.
A true empath, TV presenter, Stacey Dooley spends a year, on and off, with the family of the two women in this hour long documentary on I player. Dooley first visits Mina and Chris at their home in Ramsgate on what would have been Bibaa’s 47th birthday, a year after the murders. She comes with flowers, hugs and an alert, empathetic voice. When she talks to Mina and Chris, we see their conversations are deeply familiar. Dooley comes across like a trusted friend, popping around for afternoon tea - her empathy enables Chris and Mina to open up.
Part of this film tells the story of what happened to Bibaa and Nicole on that night, another the story of the horror compounded by the Metropolitan police’s failings in not acting quickly, then later, the crimes of two of its' officers, who manned a park cordon after the murders, and then took pictures of themselves with the dead women, sending them to 40 other officers on What's App. The two officers are also in jail.
After the women were reported missing, the police did not go to the park immediately after, leaving the family to search it on their own - Nicole’s boyfriend, Adam discovered their bodies. The sisters’ aunt sobs as she recalls a police officer at the park who would not allow family members to see them.
Grief runs through those who knew Bibaa and Nicole. Some are able to share their memories, others cannot. Through family photographs and films of the women, who were 20 years apart and also firm friends, we are let into their full lives. Even in its' short running time, this doc makes sure the women are humanised - Bibaa is a social worker working with children, about to become a grandmother. Nicole is a photographer and singer, a believer in the hippy ethic and an animal lover.
‘You have to let the anger go,’ says Mina. Without her faith she would be, “angry, bitter and twisted”.
But she veers from righteousness to depression to anger. Her husband, Chris is more muted. He does not share Mina’s religious convictions - he too is devastated – the viewer will see he is unable to make sense of what has happened, while still trying to be a rock for his wife.
Mina draws on her beliefs and turns to activism. At a vigil at the park where the women were killed, she demands answers: “Why wasn’t the outcry there, two dead black girls? Why didn’t the police go to the park? Why wasn’t this story on every front page? Why did two police officers lack so much humanity."
Dooley follows her and Chris through two trials – the murder trial, and the trial of the two police officers, Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis, convicted of misconduct in public office – then through the wait for an Independent Office for Police Conduct report on the Met’s handling of the case.
Two Daughters is not easy viewing and is not designed to be. It is a clear portrait of grief, showing the viewer who Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were, and who Mina and Chris are. Exceptional documentary making
Number of SUBs out of 10 - 9
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