Sharrock zeroes in on a number of characters. Some will be deported others will be consigned to menial jobs in their new homes the lucky and resilient few may realise the better life they have long strived for. We are on a near-deserted Scottish island where a group of people have been placed while their asylum applications are being processed. This little number is staged in front of an audience of black and Middle Eastern-looking men, who are staring at the pair with a mix of befuddlement and dispiritedness – the look of weary men wondering which hell fate has thrust them into. Sex: Is a smile an invitation?”īritish-Egyptian actor Amir El-Masry stars as Omar, a Syrian oud player (Caravan Cinema) The man goes and sits under the blackboard, which now reads: “Cultural Awareness 101. He suddenly grabs her bottom she slaps him dramatically. He tilts his bald head on her chest she continues to dismiss him. He ventures to embrace her she dismisses him. A white, middle-aged man (Kenneth Collard) and a woman (Sidse Babett Knudsen) are dancing, or rather fidgeting, in the classroom to Hot Chocolate’s 1982 pop hit, It Started With a Kiss. The film opens with an image of a happy face drawn in chalk on a blackboard. It’s not without shortcomings, but Sharrock’s approach is so mature and fresh it proves, ultimately, that the subject has not been the real cause of the aforementioned audience fatigue all along, but rather uninspired and self-important efforts. Ben Sharrock’s universally acclaimed Limbo stands tonally at odds with the vast majority of refugee movies made in the wake of the Syrian war: it’s gentle but acerbic uproariously funny, but sensitive and attentive empathetic yet not didactic. It’s all the more remarkable, then, that a Scotsman has managed to breathe new life into the subject by framing it from an angle few have dared to adopt: comedy. The excitement producers once had for the subject de jour has waned drastically, and the empathy of the liberal audience has turned to apathy. Successful or not, the once unstoppable refugee movie train has finally run out of steam. Motivations and impulses have varied, from creative bankruptcy and the lust for international recognition, to the genuine desire to raise public awareness. From the Jungle to the West End: ‘It’s not about refugees, it’s about humans’ Read More »įilms centred on African and Middle Eastern refugees existed long before the Syrian war – British filmmaker Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty Things (2002) and French director Philippe Lioret’s Welcome (2009) are two well-known examples – but a new subgenre did not fully take shape until millions of people from Iraq, Afghanistan and, mostly, Syria sought to make Europe their new home from 2015 onwards.Ĭountless documentaries by filmmakers from across the globe have milked the subject to near death, a significant number with an eye on a prestigious Oscar nomination.
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