Leslie Felperin 

In a House That Ceased to Be review – story of an altruistic matriarch

This documentary about Christina Noble empathetically examines her foundation for homeless children in Vietnam and Mongolia, and the abuse she suffered as a child in Ireland
  
  

Christina Noble in In a House That Ceased to Be
Helping others … Christina Noble in In a House That Ceased to Be Photograph: /PR

This documentary introduces viewers to Christina Noble, another ferociously altruistic matriarch like Dreamcatcher’s Brenda Myers-Powell, who has founded an NGO to help save others from the horrific experiences she once suffered herself. A well-known figure in her native Ireland, Noble started a foundation to shelter homeless children in Vietnam that now also operates in Mongolia. The first part observes her loving interactions with the children in her care in Asia, and the second follows her back to Ireland, where she opens up about the traumas and abuses that were afflicted on herself, her brother and two sisters when they were put into care with the Catholic church in the 1950s. It’s impossible not to empathise with Noble and her siblings’ pain and righteous indignation, or to admire her generosity of spirit, but it’s not as fluently told as it could be.

 

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