London River, 2009.
Directed by Rachid Bouchareb.
Starring Brenda Blethyn and Sotigui Kouyaté.
SYNOPSIS:
Two strangers journey to London in search of their children who are missing in the aftermath of the July 7th terror attacks.
Forgive my sexism here, but seeing as I’m not a middle-aged-to-elderly female it’s pretty safe to say that a British drama with Brenda Blethyn searching for her missing daughter is usually fairly low in terms of my viewing priorities. So low in fact that I’d not have given it a second glance in my local DVD store, especially with such an insipid cover that may as well replace Blethyn with the phrase “IT’S A WOMAN’S FILM” in giant, bold text. So had it not been for the fact that I’d enjoyed French-Algerian writer-director Rachid Bouchareb’s previous film – the World War II drama Days of Glory (2006) – I have no doubt whatsoever that London River would have slipped completely under my radar, which would have been a shame as the DVD cover really fails to do justice to this well-made and engrossing film.
Set against the backdrop of the London bombings in 2005, London River sees conservative Christian widow Elisabeth Sommers (Blethyn) travelling to the capital to look for her daughter Jane, who has been missing since the day of the attacks. Shocked to discover that Jane has been living in a cramped student flat deep in the heart of a Muslim community (or, as she puts it herself “crawling with Muslims), Elisabeth immediately fears the worst when she is contacted by Ousmane (Sotigui Kouyaté), an African-born Muslim looking for his son Ali, whom Ousmane believes to have been in a relationship with her daughter. Faced with the truth, Elisabeth must put aside her prejudices as she realises that Ousmane shares her goal and, brought together in such trying circumstances, the strangers come to form a bond that gives them the strength to continue their search.
As Bouchareb has stated in interviews, the primary focus of London River is to explore the coming together of Elisabeth and Ousmane as opposed to the bombings themselves, and as such the chemistry between Blethyn and Kouyaté is key to the success of the film. Both deliver excellent performances, with Kouyaté in particular impressing in what would prove to be the late actor’s final screen role. His turn as the humble, reserved Ousmane is the perfect foil to Blethyn’s anxious and paranoid Elisabeth and he was justly recognised for his performance at the Berlin International Film Festival, receiving the Silver Bear Award for Best Actor.
While some aspects of the story are a little contrived (such as everyone’s ability to speak French, including a white police detective who also happens to be a Muslim), the main narrative is certainly well-developed and thought-provoking. With London River Bouchareb has delivered a poignant character drama that also effectively manages to examine the climate of fear that engulfed the capital in the wake of the bombings, and it will be a shame if the film goes unnoticed upon its release here in the UK.
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