London River is set in the upheaval after the terrorist bombings in London on July 7, 2005. It is an absorbing and compelling drama of two parents from vastly different backgrounds who are united by their search for their missing children.
London River is a French made movie set in England and perhaps because of this is distinctly ‘un-Hollywood’ like. In other words it is gritty and real, a little fudgy at the seams and entirely resistant to wrapping everything up neatly. Also, real actors are chosen over pretty people and watching the two leads in this movie – Brenda Blethyn and Sotigui Kouyate – I wondered how many truly excellent actors are lost in the system simply because they are not good-looking enough. Blethyn plays Elizabeth, a white Anglican churchgoer, who lives in Guernsey but is not able to contact her daughter Jane after the attacks. She boards a ferry to look for her and meets Kouyate’s character – Mr. Ousamane – a Senegalese Muslim who has also travelled to London to find his son who has gone missing in the chaos.
Both actors put in deeply compelling performances that keep you riveted throughout. London River has no car chases or grand CGI effects, and instead relies upon a very real human story portrayed by two exceptional actors who manage to take you on a journey through their own emotional highs and lows with nothing more than subtle voice inflections and changing facial expressions. In fact, it is their very physical imperfections which aid their cause, with Blethyn’s wrinkled face and quavery voice drawing you deeply into the world of a grieving mother despairing the fate of her daughter, and it is Kouyate’s loping walk, lined face and fragile build that brings a certain vulnerability yet stoic dignity and sensitivity to the role of a father fearing the worst about his own son’s role in the terrorist attacks.
As much of the world struggles with a growing ‘Islamophobia,’ London River seeks to confront this prejudice by telling the story of a mother who in searching for her daughter finds that she didn’t know her as well as she thought. To her horror it appears that her daughter has not only fallen in love with a black man (Ousamane’s son), but may have also converted to Islam in the process. Her initial fear and distaste for Ousamane slowly melts as she is confronted by the hard realities of lives and cultures beyond her own and in the process the oddly matched couple find that their grief and fear over a future without their children manages to bond them together. Creating a constant undercurrent of suspense is the fact that the fate of their children is unknown until the final scenes. Perhaps the message here is that even age-old prejudices, reinforced by recent tragic events, can be overcome if we learn to listen to each other’s stories and find some commonality in that.
Clearly, London River went out of its way to dispel Islamphobia, even at the risk of becoming a little unrealistic. The portrayal of North London Muslims without the slightest anger, dissension or mistrust in the aftermath of a cataclysmic religiously-fueled terrorist attack is at the very least too easy, and at the very worst a little dishonest. I do, however, fully support the director’s intent – 99% of Muslims are kind, gracious people and it is both unjust and prejudicial to view an entire culture and religion through ‘terrorism lenses’ as many in the western world are prone to do.
Ultimately, this does not distract in the slightest from a fine movie. London River offers something wholly different and far more enriching that your standard Hollywood fare. It courageously deals with a controversial topic, and uses very real and extremely talented actors to convey its story. You won’t see actors like these in big budget productions, which honestly, is rather sad. London River seeks to change the world for the better in the telling of this story, and at the end of the day you can’t fault that.
Three and a half stars for London River.