![]() Even the casual racist abuse directed at these dark-skinned outsiders by the island’s young white natives soon dissolves into grudging mutual respect. Omar and his fellow exiles sit patiently through comically absurd “cultural awareness” lessons hosted by their well-meaning hosts, Helga (Sidse Babett-Knudsen of Borgen and Westworld fame) and Boris (Kenneth Collard). ![]() ![]() With poor cellphone coverage and limited landline access on the island, communication with his parents is sporadic and draining.ĭrawing on his personal experiences of living in the Middle East, including working in refugee camps, Sharrock depicts the migrant experience with a refreshingly light touch, not exactly joyous but more farce than tragedy. A skilled oud player in his past life, Omar now seems too depressed for music, haunted by guilt over the family he abandoned, especially older brother Nabil (Kais Nashif), who stayed behind to fight in Syria’s civil war. He shares a dingy cottage with a motley crew of fellow migrants, including the eccentric Afghani Farhad (Vikash Bhai) and two bickering brothers from West Africa, Wasef (Ola Orebiyi) and Abedi (Kwabena Ansah). The episodic plot of Limbo chiefly centers on Omar (Amir El-Masry), a refugee from war-torn Syria stranded in open-ended exile on a remote Scottish island as he waits to hear whether the British government will grant him asylum. Limbo became the first ever film to shoot on Uist, though nearby Barra was used for the classic Ealing Studios comedy Whisky Galore! (1949). For this nameless no man’s land, Sharrock chose Uist, a sparsely populated cluster of islands at the southern end of the Outer Hebrides peninsula, which lies about 40 miles north-west of the Scottish mainland. Selected for the Cannes Label 2020 program, Limbo world premieres in Toronto this week, with a London Film Festival slot to follow in October.Ī visually stunning landscape of treeless hills, deserted roads, wide-open sky and rocky coastline, the unnamed island location of Limbo is a key character in the story, serving both a dramatic and psychological function. Building on the promise of his festival prize-winning debut feature Pikadero (2016), Scottish writer-director Ben Sharrock displays a winning flair for small observational detail and minor-key mirth in his warm-hearted second feature, whose deadpan ironic tone invites comparison to Aki Kaurismaki or Jim Jarmusch.Ĭasting a refreshingly humane, wryly humorous eye on a politically contentious topic that is often sensationalized by the news media, this sweet-natured indie charmer could prove to be a break-out career-booster for Sharrock, who signed his first U.S. No man is an island in Limbo, a glumly comic drama about a group of misfit refugees stranded in surreal exile in a remote Scottish backwater town.
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