Film Reviews by MG

This film is nearly 3 hours long and refuses to have any sort of narrative, so it is like watching life in real time... but what a life: peasants living together with an uncaring landlord through harsh cold winter in northern Italy.  We were transfixed by it and completely believed in the 'actors' (all local people - not trained actors at all), including young children who looked as if they had lived like that - run in their clogs, played around in the puddles in the courtyard, etc. - all their lives.  It is a haunting, beautiful and moving film. I would recommend this very highly indeed.

This film is not easy to watch, but it is gripping and powerful.  It tells the story of the refugee experience from the standpoint of one individual - his terrifying escape from Eritrea and across Europe - set against the cold and clinical UK immigration office, focusing also on one of its officers and her particular story.  The fact that the main protagonist is kind, altruistic and heroic throughout, despite a terrible childhood,  makes it a little unbelievable,  but it does make a very moving story and one which needs to be told again and again in different ways and contexts.