Sharing a rudimentary home with Omar are three other men: Farhad (Vikash Bhai), a fan of Freddie Mercury and of chickens, who fled Afghanistan Nigerian Wasef (Ola Orebiyi) dreams of footballing glory and seventeen-year-old Abedi (Kwabena Ansah) is the realist. The combination of timely subject matter and bittersweet humour should prove to be attractive to arthouse distributors. Its Cannes 2020 label might help propel the film on its journey, but its main asset is likely to be the positive word of mouth which should start to build once the film belatedly commences its festival career. The sophomore feature from Sharrock, Limbo follows his debut Pikadero and shares with that film a keen sense both of location and of the texture of the community within, but it’s a step up in terms of ambition, scope and budget. Sharrock has a keen eye for Kaurismaki-infused downbeat absurdity. ![]() In a market crowded with migrant stories, this is something special. But the poignancy and low-key desperation of the situation in which the men find themselves is balanced by the film’s warmth and gentle humour. The non-existent mobile phone coverage (“there was a better signal in the middle of the Mediteranean,” says one man) means that the threads that bind him to his family are starting to fray. A broken hand means that he can no longer play the oud (he hauls it around, in its coffin-shaped case, wherever he goes). A promising musician who has fled the conflict in Syria, Omar (Amir El-Masry, terrific) is losing his grasp on his own identity. ![]() In this wry, Beckettian comedy from Ben Sharrock, a group of refugees are forced together by circumstances to form cautious friendships while temporarily stranded on a bleak Scottish island as they wait for rulings on asylum requests.
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