Property Rites

Partly based on a true event, the death in 1817 of a Birmingham woman, Mary Ashford, and the consequent trial of a local man, Abraham Thornton, for her rape and murder. The film is concerned with the response of her contemporaries to her behaviour on the night before she died, and by situating this within the fictional circumstances of a modern woman, explores current attitudes to rape, and the forces and assumptions underlying them.

Director

Heather Powell

Screenplay

Heather Powell

Screenplay

Carola Klein

Status

Released

Release date

14/06/1984

Original language

English