The Secret Garden by Agnieszka Holland “If you look the right way, you can see the whole world is a garden.” Such a phrase makes one stop in their tracks and thinks about what exactly could make the world a global garden as the concept of a garden can be ambiguous. Is it a piece of land used for the production of plants, vegetables, and flowers? Is it certain square footage of soil and grass that one escapes to when they need peace, quiet, the sun shining on their face and the wind blowing against their skin? Is it a physical place that holds precious memories in one’s mind? Is it a home to a family of animals and insects? Maybe it is all of these things or maybe it is just one of these things to many different people. No matter what exactly a garden is, it is one of the few things that is seen as a positive part of life by all who exist and have existed. Needless to say, a garden tends to be associated with all that is good - but its meaning and association are different in terms of everyone’s experience with a specific garden or gardens in general. Sure, talking about gardens might seem boring, but not when it is used to bring about life and magic to a certain plot of a film. The Secret Garden is a film with a great plot, unique characters, stunning cinematography, lovely sound and music, compelling screenplay, powerful visual design, superb editing, great themes, high-quality acting, and the best of directors. The Secret Garden is not about just any garden, and this particular film adaptation that was first released in 1993 was not made by just any director, but by a powerful women figure from Poland who is quite the reputable filmmaker in the film industry today - Agnieszka Holland. A film of high ratings and great reviews across the board cannot be confined to a bundle of pages as such a limit does not do justice to the creativity and hard work that played into a phenomenal production. However, the basic components of the film on top of the logistics of creating the film deserved to be covered and elaborated on yet even if shortly and simply. Agnieszka Holland, born 28 of November 1948 in Warsaw, Poland is a Polish director and screenwriter who studied at FAMU film school in Prague, Czech Republic. As known by most director fanatics, every director out there has their very own personal and transformative reason as to why they chose to embark on the tough journey of becoming a prominent and successful filmmaker - Holland’s reason for such an occupation was quite interesting. According to an online discussion [1], Agnieszka mentioned that she was fifteen years old when she decided to become a director. Interestingly enough, she wanted to be a painter before she decided on that but she once met a young boy who was a very talented painter - she watched him paint and watched him watch her paint - and noticed that he was positive towards his work, but one day he said one sentence that affected her in regards to her paintings and ultimately changed her life, her purpose and her way of seeing things; he said, “it is not bad for a woman”. This led Holland to realize that she desperately needed to find a way to express herself visually, in a different way other than painting, in order to tell the world of important stories, truths of certain topics and events, and to obtain power over the messages that can be visually exposed, and Holland did exactly that. Many of Holland’s films are based on true stories and have opened many eyes to the reality of certain things. Moreover, Holland is a sophisticated director who has a sense of cultivation in regards to world affairs and certain countries’ histories. Holland once said, “... if you are not interested in politics, politics is certainly interested in you and will start to play with your life, your body, your wealth, your peace and future…”. This quote alone shows the awareness that Holland has and chooses to show through her work. According to IMDb [2], Holland has directed at least twenty-two films, two TV shows, many episodes of numerous TV shows, has written for many films and TV shows, has acted as a Second Unit Director, Assistant Director and Producer, and has had over nineteen nominations for her work all from the Academy Awards, BAFTA Award, People’s Choice Award, Grand Jury Prize, Goya Award, Polish Academy Award, European Film Award, Czech Lion Award, Golden Lion, Silver Lion, Primetime Emmy Award, Independent Spirit Award, Independent Spirit Award and more. The nominations spanned from Best Film to Best Director to Best International Feature to Best Screenplay to Best Feature Series to Best European Film. Needless to say, Agnieszka Holland is known as a genius on a global scale, but even more so in the film industry. In addition, Holland has received many awards; these awards are the following: Polish Academy Special Award, Czech Lion Award for Best Director, Medal for Merit to Culture - Gloria Artis, National Board of Review Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Polityka Passport Award for Creator of Culture, Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta, Czech Lion Film Fans Award, National Society of Film Critics Special Citation, and Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, all spanning from 1991 for Holland’s film Europa Europa to 2018 for the film Spoor. Agnieszka Holland continues to be a force in the film industry and never fails to astonish her audience with works of a genius mind. The Secret Garden is known as a best-selling book with five film adaptations. The first movie adaptation of The Secret Garden was released in 1949, the second in 1993, the third in 2001, the fourth in 2017, and the fifth in 2020. All films are of excellence as each plot and all characters are essentially the same; however, The Secret Garden adaptation by Agnieszka Holland is special in its way; The Secret Garden, as most films and novels do, has a protagonist and antagonist. The protagonist is Mary Lennox, a young girl, who is played by Kate Maberly and the antagonist is Mrs. Medlock, an older lady who is seen as the caretaker who is played by Maggie Smith. Other important characters include the following: Sir Colin Craven, a young boy who is Mary’s cousin, played by Heydon Prowse. Archibald Craven, Colin’s Father, played by John Lynch. Dickon Sowerby, a friend of Mary’s, played by Andrew Knott. Martha Sowerby, a maid, played by Laura Crossley. Lily Craven, Mary’s Mother, played by Irene Jacob. Ben Weatherstaff, the gardener, played by Walter Sparrow, and more. [3] The Secret Garden plot is as follows; Mary Lennox was a young girl who was born in India to not-so-attentive, but loving, parents. Mary struggled with gaining their attention, but over time, we see that Mary Lennox’s parents are still in the phase of extreme love between each other and despite their love for Mary, they simply do not give her as much attention as she would like. Unfortunately, Mary’s parents passed away due to an intense earthquake in India which left Mary without her parents and having to leave her birth country. Mary was sent to live at her Uncle Archibald Craven’s mansion in England which is in an area opposite of India in terms of the weather, culture, people, and so on. Although Uncle Archibald is seldom seen at the beginning of the film, he has a powerful presence as he is spoken about all the time and is seen as a mysterious figure by Mary Lennox as well as almost everyone else within the household. On top of that, Uncle Archibald is dealing with the death of his wife and purposely avoids interaction with the people of the mansion, specific items that remind him of his deceased wife, and his son as well. Mary Lennox, a sassy young girl who thinks she is superior to everyone thanks to the way she was raised, acts shocked as to how she is treated - at first, she is expected to dress and feed herself which she is not used to. Moreover, Mrs. Medlock is told to look after Mary but Mrs. Medlock tends to be quite serious, strict and gives off no-nonsense vibes. Although her behavior is expected as she is in control of the household, she tends to go overboard with her controlling ways and acts tyrannically at times. Right off the bat, Mary and Mrs. Medlock does not get along as Mary is used to being spoiled and doing whatever she wants, and although at first she is confined to her room, porridge, and black outfits, Mary escapes her ways into the secret corridors of such a large house. Eventually, Mary develops a good friendship with Martha who is a lovely and kind maid that seems like just the right person to get through anyone’s supposed tough exteriors. Martha introduces Mary to silly and fun things such as skipping rope, and Martha also finds a way to get Mary to lighten her mood and not take herself so seriously. All while Mary is getting used to her new situation and attempting to adapt to new peoples, new country, and a new home, Mary hears odd distant crying noises at night time and seldom during the day.