Fresh from Berlin: London River review
What happens to ordinary people who search frantically for their loved ones after a bomb attack? How do they even come to know that missing family members may be victims? Where do they begin looking and who do they turn to for help? The subject may not be new but Rachid Bouchareb, the French-born director of Algerian descent, elicits a new ethos into the story he narrates.
LONDON RIVER (his Dust of Life and had been nominated for the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category in 1995 while Days of Glory is a multi-award winner) treads on the canvas of indiscriminate terror strikes delicately and with ingenuity. Elisabeth Sommers, a middle-aged Englishwoman (splendidly played by Brenda Blethyn), living alone on her farm on the Channel Island of Guernsey comes to London in search of her daughter after hearing of the bus and train explosions on 7/7/2005. She is unable to contact Jane despite desperate attempts to reach her on her mobile. Elisabeth's arrival in London is the first in a series of shocks that will turn her world topsy turvy: young Jane's address is in a run-down Muslim neighbourhood. Something must be very wrong, Elisabeth feels. But helped by the Arab owner of the building, she is able to enter the apartment. Among the things she notices is an unfamiliar string instrument. And then begins a circle of visits to the police, hospitals, anywhere that can suggest the tiniest of clues... .
Meanwhile, Ousmane, a tall, lanky, dignified, sombre-looking and reserved French-speaking African (veteran actor Sotigui Kouyate in an utterly sensitive performance that won him the Best Actor award) who lives and works in France comes in search of his son whom he has not seen in fifteen years. He stays in a cheap grubby hotel, and the paths of the two protagonists cross inadvertently. For Elisabeth, the culture shock is immediate. She feels Ousmane knows something about her daughter and rushes off to denounce him to the police. Her complaint comes to naught. She even learns to her horror and dismay that her daughter was living with Ousmane's son, attending Koran classes and learning Arabic in a mosque. "Why should she learn Arabic? Who speaks Arabic?" she cries to herself. Her ordinary, contented, rural, conventional upbringing crashes before the enormity of her daughter's deeds.
Gradually, after initial reluctance, the two share their anguish and helplessness as they move together trying to ferret out information about their children (as a resident of Guernsey, Elisabeth can get by in French). There is even a momentary sense of relief when the protagonists learn that son and daughter had planned a holiday together and had bought tickets for France.
It's a clever way to build a story of cultural tolerance. The bombings become a turning point in the lives of Elisabeth and Ousmane. The walls that had naturally been erected in her closed world break down. Ethnic, linguistic, religious and racial barriers crumble before shared personal tragedies that link them. In particular, Elisabeth is driven to open up to the world and to herself. Ousmane suffers an even greater grief. He suspects that his son may have had a hand in the bombers.
Bouchareb has brought out the most heart-warming of performances from his lead actors - in turn afraid, hopeful, helpless, silent and stricken. With an easy pace, controlled dialogue and well chosen locations that avoid the London of clichés, the director gives us a moving, emotional script that never gets maudlin. Shame that it took nothing less than the deaths of children to transform world views. But LONDON RIVER brings together - and punctures - racial and religious bigotry in the most natural of ways.
A minor masterpiece....
LONDON RIVER
Director: Rachid Bouchareb
Country: UK/France/Algeria
Year: 2009
Duration: 87 mins
Cast: Brenda Blethyn, Sotigui Kouyate, Roschdy Zam, Sami Bouajila
