En el limbo

Deeply powerful true-life drama about just one of the people so egregiously treated during Britain's Windrush scandal. It's understated, and all the more moving for it - simmering with rage, you find yourself keeping tears at bay for almost the whole running time.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

The true life story of Anthony Bryan (Patrick Robinson), a man who spent his whole life living and working in the UK, after moving here with his mother at the age of eight, only to find himself caught up in the crossfire of the government's 'Hostile Environment' policy, where he was suddenly challenged to produce documentation that he was legally living in the UK. What followed was an unthinkable nightmare, as he found himself plunged into an unduly punitive cycle, where he was forced to report to a government agency each week, before being rounded up and held in a detention centre in Dover, hundreds of miles from his home.

It's easy to think horror stories are things that just get stored in the deepest reaches of the human mind, purely fictional things that exist purely in the back of our souls. It's unimaginable that any of us could truly find ourselves plunged into a 'living nightmare', which we have no control over or power to stop, and yet only a few years ago, that is exactly what happened to Anthony Bryan, and numourous other members of the 'Windrush' generation, as news and politics was filled with rhetoric about 'getting tough on immigration.'

Although director Stella Corradi and writer Stephen S. Thompson do not shy away from dramatizing the effect on Anthony's nearest and dearest, including wife Janet (Nadine Marshall), daughter Eileen (Pippa Bennett-Warner) and son Gary (C.J. Beckford), it's still ultimately his personal, living ordeal, and so it's lucky that lead star Robinson manages to deliver a performance of such quiet understatement, an honest, hard working, law abiding man suddenly hounded with such Gestapo like force, before losing his liberty and getting caged up like a criminal, and the subsequent impact on his mental health and sanity.

Shamefully, the whole Windrush scandal largely went over my head, but this is the first time I've seen the full horror of what actually went on, and it really gets under your skin. An uncomfortable, but well made, well acted and very effective piece indeed. ****

This is such a stain on recent U.K. history. Its not a matter of colour - it's a matter of honour and morals.

Someone arrived Legitimately in U.K. aged 8. Builds a whole life here and is told "he is illegally living here"

Not just that - the way "the system" dealt with these British Citizens is appalling. The Politicians of all shades should hang their heads in shame.

Especially one or to in particular. (Mentioning no names)

The other reviews here describe it all. This is an outrage that a man who came to UK when he was 8 would get treated like an illegal at the age of 58! What is wrong with the bureaucrats at UK immigration? Are they total idiots. This poor guy got placed in a detention centre like a prison, he loses his job. Immigration offered to 'repatriate' him back to Jamaica! Outrageous! A story of racism, prejudice & mistreatment. And he is not the only one who has been victimised by a department clearly being run by nasty characters with limited humanity or intelligence. A fine piece of drama to tell a story that will remain a record of truth. And this all happened only 3-4 years ago!

This film was incredibly moving, as its story and brilliant presentation eliminated any sight of actors. It simply allowed a loving family to play out its tragedy before my eyes. Within ten minutes of watching this film, I quickly realized that I wasn't sneaking a peek at the injustice sought upon strangers from a foreign land but rather how easy it was for me, as an American, to not consider any other nationality of people to be a government's target for soul destruction because of the color of skin. So, quite honestly, this film didn't just educate me but humbled my very existence in the most entertaining way ever.