Simple and effective, French-Algerian(?) writer/director Rachid Bouchareb downsizes from past efforts for this heartfelt look at two parents from different cultures, each searching for a missing child in the wake of a London terrorist bombing. Shot in gritty ‘80s style on 16mm stock, the film gains authenticity not only thru its physical look and out-of-the-way London locations, but also from the opposing acting techniques of Brenda Blethyn, single-mother to a missing daughter from a small isolated farm on Guernsey; and Sotigui Kouyaté’s father, an African long living & working in France with scant knowledge of his missing son. She: showing every emotion. He: showing nothing. Yet each, in their own way, totally readable. Their connection: a growing awareness that their children were involved, having an affair, living together, going to mosque for language lessons, and (horrifyingly) possible terrorists. Something neither parent dares to articulate, yet pulling them reluctantly together. (Blethyn especially bewildered and upset at what she sees as her daughter’s cultural/religious drift.) The last act holds three big revelations, but since each is a SPOILER, let’s merely note that one of the three is something of a cheat. Everything else, very fine.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: A last film for actor Sotigui Kouyaté, a gaunt, but riveting screen presence who might have been the model for Alberto Giacometti’s ‘Walking Man.’
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