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Monnie (Justine Clarke) is Guinea’s (Rebecca Gibney) younger sister. She works in a factory sewing parachutes for the war effort. She’s becoming independent but her mother (Gillian Jones), grief stricken with the loss of her favourite son, has strong and unyielding catholic views about how young girls should behave.
Curator’s notes
Both Guinea and her younger sister see themselves as modern women because they have paying wartime work. Unfortunately, while there are new freedoms available through the social upheavals of war, the stigma remains for any woman who might become pregnant out of marriage.
With just a few well-chosen scenes, Guinea’s family is sketched out for us. They’re catholic and poor, with a father disabled since the First World War and a mother whose life of drudgery with several children to bring up, has been devastated by the news that one of her sons in uniform is missing.
This is very different from the privileged world of the hotel where Guinea works and the contrast between the two presents a vast disparity of wealth and moral standards.
