LONDON RIVER (Rachid Bouchareb). 86 minutes. Some subtitles. Opens tonight (Thursday, January 13) at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. See Times. Rating: NNNN
It’s a parent’s nightmare. You think you know your child, only to discover that you know nothing about the essentials of her life.
When she can’t get in touch with her daughter, Jane, in the wake of the 2005 tube suicide bombings, small-?minded Guernsey farmer Elizabeth (Brenda Blethyn) heads to London to make contact. She’s shocked when the cab drops her in the heart of the Arab district, where Jane lives above a halal butcher shop.
And Elizabeth is definitely not ready to hear from Muslim African Ousmane (Sotigui Kouyaté), who’s also in London seeking his estranged son Ali, that their two children are connected. She responds with suspicion and fear.
The script, co-?written by French-Algerian director and Academy Award nominee Rachid Bouchareb (Days Of Glory), is a subtle meditation on racism and the tendency of parents to think the worst. It’s also unpredictable in the way it evokes multicultural London. A sequence in which a police officer interrogates Ousmane is especially canny.
Blethyn is superb as the mother repelled by the idea that her daughter might love a Muslim. (Small cavil: how would an unworldly woman like her know French?) And Kouyaté, whose emotions run deep, is a deserving winner of the best actor prize at the 2009 Berlin Festival.
This is a small film that takes its time. But in this case, small is beautiful.
