Time and time again we are reminded of the ways in which history blocked out accounts of minorities. There are several stories and lives being uncovered constantly. The world did not want these people to exist, and so they made them irrelevant and disappear. Thankfully, however, in recent years, filmmakers have taken these once hidden stories and brought them forward to the world. The cinematic medium will not only inspire, but it most importantly shares.
The events that occurred in Edinburgh, Scotland 1810 inspired Lillian Hellman’s most famous play, The Children’s Hour. Later turned into the American film of the same name in 1961, with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine. Inspired by Hellman’s work, American historian Lillian Faderman wrote Scotch Verdict, in 1983. From her research the case was discovered and within it much more. It is the story within this that inspired Sophie Heldman’s The Education of Jane Cumming. With Flora Nicholson’s help, this film gives the world a new insight onto the three leading ladies. Their film premiered on Sunday February 15, 2026 at the 76th Berlin Film Festival.
The passion of two teachers, Jane Pirie (Nicholson) and Marianne Woods (Clare Dunne), manifests in their dream of life together in the opening of a boarding school for young girls. All is going well until wealthy aristocrat Lady Cumming Gordon (Fiona Shaw) enrols her three grandchildren. It is Jane (Mia Tharia), the “illegitimate” 15-year-old from India, who changes the lives of Jane and Marianne forever. Struggling to integrate the girl with her classmates, young Jane remains an outsider. Over the summer holidays, relationships between the three change when Lady Cumming Gordon insists Miss Pirie and Miss Woods take Jane to her cottage and look after her.
As Heldman sets the tone of the film, audiences are brought directly into 1810 Edinburgh. Through a vast outdoor landscape, the carriage in which the Cumming’s preside grasps your attention as it rides you (and the girls) into their new home. For a period piece, Heldman crafts an honest environment that feels true to its origins. Though made for an adult audience, the importance of the young girls is evident as well. The innocence of childhood comes through the screen. But also the common aspect of bullying is also there. Through the racism evident in The Education of Jane Cumming, that is where our plot stems.
With the girls at school isolating her, Jane took this fear and loneliness and turned it into anger. Unable to fit in, the affection grows between Jane and her teachers while away on holiday. She comes to believe she has found an unlikely family in them. When the new term begins and tensions rise, the teachers feel overwhelmed by Jane’s continuous hope for closeness. Taken entirely the wrong way, Jane now not only feels excluded in the classroom, but from her new family as well. Refusing to stay at the school, she returns home to her grandmother. Here Jane takes it upon herself to accuse her two teachers of having an affair in the presence of the girls, leading to a scandal. Leaving the two teachers in an existential battle, they must fight for their legal rights. A fight that lasts a decade and scandalizes the Scottish establishment.
The Education of Jane Cumming is so much more than a simple fictionalized piece of cinema. As much as it is not the entire truth, this moment in history is there for the taking (or understanding). Heldman imbued a message into her film. At a glance you believe you are being shown a hidden story of what two queer women fought for as early as the 1810s. Where in reality, the historical fact itself is that racism caused something within one little girl which ruined two other people’s lives. Heldman is sharing all three of these women’s stories and reminding her audience of the ripple affect one bad decision, or bullying, can have on everyone around the initial person affected.
To describe The Education of Jane Cumming as a passion project would not do the film, or its filmmaker justice. The passion and research put into this project is clear with its final production. Uncovering hidden facts of history while reminding its audience how discrimination can go a lot further than you may believe. After its world premiere at the 76th Berlin Film Festival on Sunday February 15, 2026, The Education of Jane Cumming presented beautifully to its audience. Let us await for its wider release so that Heldman and crew can share Jane, Jane and Marianne’s story with the world.