Pluskylang Great Film overall

GazerRise Fantastic!

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

ell1981 Excellent film that rightly received awards in independent categories. Throughout there was an unpretentious feel to this film that shows the directors craft and subtle methods. Made without a script this simply highlighted the talent of the actors. Considine as ever delivers a simple yet compelling performance and the young Artyom also showed a maturity beyond his years. Again credit must be given to the direction and the subtle use of light that created the feeling of isolation and solace as well as an other wordly dream like paralysis. Really well crafted and paced and beautifully shot. Enjoyable and compelling and worth a watch.

Lee Tyrrell Having rented this film completely at random from my college library and placed it in my PS2 having no knowledge of what or who to expect from this film.A grim account of how refugees are treated in Britain, it certainly brought home a lot of feelings i already had about the underlying current of racism in our country, but also showed the character of Alfie (Paddy Considine) to be the typical nice guy, running round and generally being a good bloke.There is a certain degree of stereotype in this (the kids getting drunk so young, the nice British guy just looking for love, the fish out of water who learns to love), but a certain scary aspect of this film is the fact that these stereotypes may just be real life.. everyday, somewhere in the armpit of the country.To sum up, though, those with pre-misconceptions of immigrants and asylum seekers being dirty money launderers will find themselves very horrified to see the truth in this film, as that is exactly what the director has portrayed in this brilliant and (for me) surprise piece of cinema.

bob the moo A young Russian woman Tanya and her son arrive in England and claim political asylum in order to be allowed to stay. They are then put in a holding area in a sea-side town in Northern England and told they must wait for 12-16 months while their claims are processed. They find their situation and the town to be equally bleak and look for a way out. Two options present themselves - the kindness of arcade owner Alfie and the well-paying exploitation of pornographer Les.This is a little gem of a film - very short but strong in almost every other area. The plot is not a typical life of an asylum seeker in the UK but it allows us to see life from their point of view. This doesn't mean that it's all bleak - Tanya sees humanity, exploitation, hate and indifference (the officers just doing their job who can't look into everyone's needs). The story is quite straightforward and at times doesn't seem to be going anywhere - the conclusion is pretty open, it's clever but it isn't satisfying for those wanting an end to the story. It's more a character piece that also looks at the UK's asylum policy. However it doesn't judge anyone or anything - it is wonderful in the way it simply presents the story with little sentiment or emotion and without pointing fingers at anyone or any situation. It could have easily been very preachy.The cast are great. Korzun is a great actress and brings her character's vulnerability through. Strelnikov is also good as her son although doesn't have as much to do. Considine is excellent as Alfie - at first his character just seems to be a wide-boy type, saying "man" every few words and boasting about his fights and stuff, but his character is deeply written and is well brought out. The surprise performance for me was the role of Les, the internet pornographer who offers good money to Tanya for some strip work. It was a surprise because he was played by real life pornographer Steve Perry (his porn name is Ben Dover - quite famous in the UK) - although here he is credited as "Lindsey Honey", a made-up name. The fact that he essentially plays himself (just in terms of his job) but allows himself to be judged by the audience makes it an excellent, brave performance and he deserves recognition for it.The film's weaknesses are minor but the fact that it is so bleak may be a turn off for those not willing to look past the surface. Also it moves quite slow and may frustrate at times. The way the scenes fade to black give it a bad TV feel - it feels like it was made to fade out to commercial breaks. Also the way that the seaside town is portrayed as "big brother" style town where the authorities see and know everything is at times a little hard to swallow.Overall it is a great character piece that also gives a view of the UK from an foreigners point of view. It's slow, thoughtful and non-judgemental.

hammy-3 Hot on the heels of news that the british are reputed to be the most rascist nation in the EU comes this elucidation of why that may be the case. A russian woman comes to england to meet her fiance and is only allowed in to the country if she applies for refugee status. told she has to stay in a detention centre for a year and a half and given only food vouchers and terrible accomodation to live on. At this point the movie could turn into a kafkaesque fable but instead is an ultra-naturalistic study of live in british emigration centres.It's a film that's cautiously optimistic about human nature, as a deus ex machina in the form of sweet, loving Paddy Consadine comes to save her from what he himself describes as a hell hole. This annoyed me a little bit; it seemed to be putting across the message that the english are really tolerant towards foreign immigrants and that it's "The System" that mistreats them. This seems a bit fanciful to me.One other thing that annoyed was that the only person to be hurt was an internet pornographer who pays the woman the equivalent of a month's wages back home for about an hour's striptease work. Is it really him that deserves to be hurt, and not the government, the immigration authorities, and the editors of rabble-rousing right-wing newspapers?But this is a warm, generous, beautifully shot, human film that i fear will never be seen by the people who need to see it most.