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Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Films of 2021

#19 : Limbo

Heart-rending portrait of refugees stranded in Scotland that announces Ben Sharrock as a master of atmospheric film-making, in a stirring drama about a Syrian migrant.

I'd not heard anything about this when I first saw it on the list, but since then I've read a couple of articles about how great it is, so am looking forward to watching it.

And - it's ANOTHER film in 4:3!  That's the alternate aspect ratio of choice this year, isn't it?  

It starts with an amusing cultural awareness lesson scene which goes on for far longer than it really should, but still manages to be funny.  And we revisit these lessons as a frame for both comedy and pathos throughout the film as we follow Omar, a Syrian refugee who finds himself awaiting his claim processing on a remote island in Scotland.  And to be honest, the film involves a lot of waiting around on everyone's part - it's very aptly titled.  It also manages to be pretty grim at times - particularly in one scene where you expecting Omar to have a ray of sunshine enter his existence but things turn out way worse than you're expecting.  It does manage an impressive ending though which is somehow both upbeat and downbeat at the same time, whilst also not offering any closure - leaving you, as it were, in limbo.

Dislocation is a major theme of the film with all the refugees having nothing in common except for their status in this totally alien environment.  The weather and landscape also work well on this front - I can't claim to be an expert on the Syrian environment, but I'm guessing it's not very much like the North of Scotland.  There really are some very fine landscape shots indeed - it's beautiful up there (North and South Uist apparently).  There are also lots of extreme close-ups of faces, which work really well.  Another neat directorial trick that's used is to often have people in shot doing either nothing or something very inconsequential - excuse my assumptions again, but I'm guessing the thinking here is to demonstrate the "limbo" of the title, where there's nothing to do except wait.

Amir El Masry is very good as Omar, carrying the film well and ably supported by Vikash Bhai as Farhad - with the former having considerably more experience than the latter.  I'm also going to call out Sidse Knudsen and Kenneth Collard as Helga and Boris, who are really quite an amusing double act.

All in all, it's a very well written and shot film - both the responsibility of Ben Sharrock.  You feel that every line and shot is infused with meaning, even if you're not entirely sure what the meaning is.  There are also very sly jokes hidden both in the dialogue and in the corners of shots - it's all very dry, finding humour in the most unfortunate of situations and the most jarring of cultural clashes.  It's not normally laugh-out-loud humour but more somewhat depressing humour pointing out various absurdities of both human nature and the situation for refugees, which somehow still manages to make you smile.  As a whole, the situation is all desperately sad, but it somehow still manages to be quite uplifting - which is a fine line to navigate but the film does it well.  It's also a fabulous looking film with some fantastic landscape shots - I'm not 100% convinced I see why he went for 4:3, but I'm also not going to argue with him.  I can, however, assure you that you won't see a better film featuring an oud this year.

At the time of writing, this film is available to rent on most of the usual channels - I think it's a very subtle and rewarding film which well worth a watch.

#20 - A very impressive piece of film-making and acting
#18 - A great film featuring incredible footage