Why do you have to shout it to the world?

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Movies of 2020...

#38 : Love Child

This moving documentary looks at two Iranian refugees trying to get by in Turkey as they wait for official UN status – having fled from their home country because of their punishable-by-death extramarital affair and the son produced from it.

I like a documentary at the best of times and suspected I'd like this one and, after a LOT of searching I managed to track it down, so I settled in to watch it with anticipation.  And it starts in 2012 in Iran, just before the couple in question (Sahand and Leila, and their child Mani) flee - and the first 10 minutes or so would be very confusing if I hadn't already read the description above.  However, the backstory is then provided - through the somewhat clichéd form of a therapy session, but it's welcome nonetheless.

And then you've basically got the story of a family trying to live an ordinary life under the most extraordinary circumstances (and sometimes with the most extraordinary haircuts!).  They basically have to live in limbo somewhere between potential freedom and the death sentence, with the important decisions being made by people who don't know anything about them - you can't but warm to them all and desperately hope for a happy outcome.  And whilst they're living their life, they have to try and find a way through the bureaucratic maze to achieve their happy outcome - which funnily enough, isn't the easiest thing to do.

And whilst I can't go into details, something then happens that throws them into even more limbo (limbo-er?) - the whole system seems arbitrarily cumbersome, but as Sahand says "The UN is dealing with thousands of refugees" - and I suspect not all of them are quite so understanding as these two.  And they really do come across so well with even their "arguments" (under obviously massively stressful conditions) coming across as so good-natured that you can't believe anyone else would manage to hold it together so well.  You can't help but feel for them all.

One thing I will say which is a bit spoiler-ish (but not too much) is that the scene where they get married is both amazingly stressful and joyously happy (and who knew you needed health reports to get married in some countries?).  And whilst it's a bit spoiler-ish, there's still plenty of twists and turns afterwards to frustrate and annoy you.  And believe me, you will be frustrated and annoyed - so don't imagine they waltz off into the sunset immediately afterwards (but no spoilers)

At times, you find yourselves wondering exactly who was filming a lot of this - it's obviously isn't any of the main protagonists (because they're on screen) so you assume that someone picked up on this as a potential documentary very early on.  In 2012 or 13, they're filmed saying they might have to stay in Turkey for 2 or 3 years but the film covers at least 5 years - which shows an impressive dedication to the cause, but also the twists and turns of the story could quite easily have made the whole thing a waste of time (but fortunately that most definitely wasn't the case).

Given it's a documentary, there's nothing really to say on filming, acting or sound - you get what you're given but it's always watchable.  And that's pretty much down to Sahand, Leila and Mani just being the people they are and living the life they do.  I do think the film could have finished with some facts about the wider situation beyond this family because it's obviously a situation being experienced by many, many people and I would have appreciated learning a bit more about the numbers.  But overall, it's a very watchable film with a very engaging set of people and an interesting story which managed to both educate and shock me.

At the time of writing, this film is incredibly hard to track down - as far as I can tell, your best bet is to message me and hope I haven't deleted it yet.

#39 - Watching films so you don't have to
#37 - An unexpected pleasure