Film

Property Rites

198459mDrama

Director: Heather Powell
Year: 1984

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.

Top cast

Sally Eldridge

Cathy

Sianna King

Lynn

Len Edwards

Dr. Booker

Paul Farla

Broadside Seller

Alton Douglas

Friend to Justice

Jean Mullholland

Denise Robertson

Catherine Hall

Directed by

Heather Powell

Written by

Heather Powell, Carola Klein

Produced by

Roger Shannon