02/05/2023 - By way of interviews, archive footage and video-selfies, Sasha King’s documentary about the “CervicalCheck scandal” reveals the misogyny which is still present in society and the government

It was known as “the CervicalCheck scandal”. It erupted in Ireland in 2018 and involved 221 women with cervical cancer who had undergone smear tests and told that the results were negative, only to find out that the re-examined results of these tests had been kept secret for years. Directed by producer and director Sasha King, Vicky looks back on the whole affair, focusing on the character who gave rise to the case: Vicky Phelan. The film was presented in a North American premiere on 3 May at the Hot Docs Festival, as part of the European Film Promotion (EFP) initiative: The Changing Face Of Europe. Vicky has huge potential for international distribution, especially via dedicated and generalist TV networks.

In 2011, Vicky Phelan, a 43-year-old mother of two from Annacotty, Co Limerick, underwent a smear test which didn’t detect any abnormalities. In 2014, she was diagnosed with cancer. In the same year, a review of the 2011 test revealed the results hadn’t been accurate. In January 2018, after palliative therapy, Vicky was told that she had terminal cancer and had 6 to 12 months to live.

“I love the sea, this is where I want my ashes scattered”, Vicky states in an anti-climatic moment when she’s walking on a beach which looks out over the Atlantic Ocean. But Vicky isn’t the type of woman to give in to despair. She has a family to look after, and she doesn’t want to die quite so soon. But above all, she wants the truth. And she’s thinking about all those other women who might be in the same situation. Striking the perfect balance between human and emotional realities and meticulous documentation of the facts as they unfolded, Sasha King’s film reveals how such a thing could have happened. To begin with, there was the decision by public health heads in 2008 to outsource those tests to the USA. A full-blown recession was underway and, in order to reduce costs by a third, the fate of these Irish women was entrusted to overseas laboratories, purely for profit-based motivations. Vicky decided to take control of the situation; she refused chemotherapy and set her sights on obtaining pembrolizumab with a view to slowing down the tumour’s progress. She turned to lawyer Cian O’Carroll, who specialises in patient negligence, and took an American laboratory, which was subcontracted with the national cervical screening CervicalCheck programme, to the High Court. She won 2.5 million euros, but no admission of responsibility, and her case against the Health Service Executive was cancelled. The battle had only just begun, but it eventually led to resignations, admissions of guilt, and changes in healthcare standards and protocols. On 22 October 2018, the government at last asked for forgiveness from the 221 women and their families whose lives have been destroyed by their negligence. “We ask this of our wives, daughters, sisters and mothers. It’s a failure which leaves the country broken-hearted”, Government Leader Leo Varadkar lamented.

The feeling we get is that all of this wasn’t simply the result of a need to save money; what we’re also dealing with is a country which hasn’t yet learned respect for the female body, especially in the field of reproduction, and where misogyny is still winding its way through the fabric of society and the bureaucratic apparatus. Using tight editing, the director avails herself of high-level testimonies, such as that of the former Irish President Mary Robinson, as well as TV news and radio show footage. But most important of all, she includes short video-selfies where we see the protagonist venting into her mobile during her most emotionally wrenching times. At the same time, we witness Vicky Phelan’s transformation into a public figure, replete with awards, magazine covers, TV appearances, speeches where she jokes about having to say the word “vagina”, honorary doctorates and her selection for Tatler Woman of the Year and the BBC’s 100 Women. But, ultimately: “I would rather have kept my anonymity and been a normal mum”.

Vicky is produced and sold by Princess Pictures. The film was distributed in Ireland in October, courtesy of Volta Pictures.

(Translated from Italian)