I’ve been very lucky to get hold of a screener copy of the new award-winning film ‘London River‘, directed by Rachid Bouchareb, which is available on DVD from today – a rather eery coincidence since the official inquest on the events of the time begins at the Royal Courts of Justice today.
The film tells the harrowing tale of the search by two parents for their children in the wake of the 7/7 bombings. The main characters, Elizabeth (Brenda Blethyn) and Ousmane (Sotigui Kouyate) on the surface at least appear very different – Elizabeth is a conservative farmer from Guernsey who lives a rather insular life and Ousman is an African refugee working as a forester in France. Right at the beginning , however, we get some quite strong hints about the understanding that will develop between them as the film progresses – in these opening scenes we see both characters involved in religious observances in their respective remote rural settings, but soon events intervene to bring them both to the same part of North London in the search for their children, who have been missing since the events of 7 July.
I won’t go into more details of the plot, but I will talk a little bit more about some other aspects of the film. In my opinion the main performances are what make this special – Blethyn plays a convincingly pinched, austere and judgemental woman, given to bursts of frantic desperation, while in contrast Kouyate’s performance is one of serene calm, stillness and stoicism. Cinematically, the filming style evokes the production quality of a good TV drama, which is not a criticism in this case – I think it perfectly suits the material. It also runs to a similar length – only one and a half hours, but again this provided sufficient time to explore the themes. I’m not going to say that you’ll enjoy the film per se, because although not graphic there are some absolutely harrowing scenes, and there is also liberal use of contemporary news footage – suffice it to say that it’s not something to watch if you can’t handle being reminded about those terrible days in 2005. On balance however, with the exception of one or two very small niggles about the plot and setting (clearly they did the filming when budget allowed, but definitely not during a hot London July) it is very well put together, and something to add to your collection if you’re a fan of contemporary British drama (actually it’s a French production, but you get the idea). Definitely an A for effort from me.
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