ADAPTATION

  

SOURCE: HEIMATFILM

The Education of Jane Cumming

The Education of Jane Cumming is a film based on Lillian Faderman's nonfiction book, Scotch Verdict: The Real-life Story That Inspired ‘The Children’s Hour.’ Faderman recounts discovering an 1810 trial involving two Scottish school mistresses and their Anglo-Indian pupil, a case shaped by race, class and sexual prejudice. “The judges in the case,” she recalls, “struggled to discover the truth, but they were stymied by their deep-set race and class prejudices and their ignorant notions about women’s sexuality. What they missed is what Sophie Heldman’s film, The Education of Jane Cumming, brings to life so vividly: the timeless deep feeling and tenderness, and the poignant sorrow and tragedy, of this fateful encounter between two passionate women and a lost girl.” By foregrounding intersecting injustices of race, class, gender and sexuality, the film restores voices silenced for centuries, with unsettling contemporary relevance.

Director and Co-Writer Sophie Heldman: “I was inspired by Lillian Faderman’s work. As there is very little documentation of queer life through history, she researched legal archives to find alternative stories. If the teachers hadn’t gone to court they’d all be forgotten—but here, in these letters, character references, school account books....we get a window into their world. What it meant to own your own business as an unmarried woman, what it was like to be a girl from India in Scotland in 1810. It’s not only the words on the page but the emotions you can feel running through it. I remember one of the letters Jane Pirie wrote, her handwriting was more erratic than usual, she was so furious and she was writing so quickly that her quill nib ripped a hole through the page. They became so alive for me in these details. You can feel their desperation, their yearning, their humour.”

Director: Sophie Heldman

Screenplay: Flora Nicholson and Sophie Heldman
with Flora Nicholson, Clare Dunne, Mia Tharia, Fiona Shaw

A production of Heimatfilm GmbH + CO KG (Bettina Brokemper, Germany) in co-production with Dschoint Ventschr (Karin Koch, Switzerland) and Sylph Productions (Nadira Murray, UK).

World Sales:
Global Constellation sales@globalconstellation.com

International Publicity:
Christelle + Co PR
Christelle Randall

christelle@christelleandcopr.com
Nicole Warren
nicole@christelleandcopr.com
Morgan Picton James
morgan@christelleandcopr.com

BERLINALE PANORAMA Screenings
World Premiere - Sunday 15th Feb - 6.15pm - Zoo Palast 1
Monday 16th Feb - 10.45am - Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Tuesday 17th Feb - 9.45pm - Cubix 7
Thursday 19th Feb - 9.30pm - Urania
Sunday 22nd Feb - 6.45pm - Cubix 9

Distributors: Farbfilm Verleih (Germany), Frenetic Films AG (Switzerland) ©2026, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom