Aisha

I went in blind to a screening of this film from a passing recommendation at Irish Film Festival London. Admittedly I was not expecting much from this film which has definitely worked to its advantage, giving it a favourable review.

Aisha is a girl who has been through the ropes. Bad luck, tragedy and mental scarring. While seeking refuge in Ireland, she befriends a security guard who shows her empathy. She lives under the threat of being exiled, interview after interview from the pencil pushers, with no end in sight.

The truths it shows about Ireland could never be more true, while the people of Ireland are selfless, the government itself is selfish. This juxtaposition is what most countries deal with. A decent watch if you are interested in current socio-political topics.

As someone from Ireland this is an important movie. As someone who has lived abroad in China there were some things I could relate to. That feeling of being temporary, being defined by your country, constantly having to justify why you're there and being the minority. That on top of having to answer the same stupid questions. All these complaints are minor compared to how my country treats these asylum seekers. It's inhumane and disgusting to be trapped in this limbo where they say you have rights, but the smug people in control get to do whatever they want, move you, take you away from the life you're building even though want to work and contribute. These people flee from the threat of abuse, death, sexual exploitation. They have to escape quickly and the countries that take them in keep them waiting around for 6 years with limit freedom and ask why they don't have this imaginary paperwork that proves they went through these things. When refugees fled Germany and France during WW2 they weren't scrutinised like this and it makes no sense that you can't just live. There has to be a better system than this.

I recommend this movie to all Irish residents. Also to anyone anywhere with no real or lived understanding of trauma and/or life circumstances that cause you to flee for your life or die in the process. It will be emotionally triggering and upsetting for those who are or have been through the asylum application process, yet I wanted to see it the first time I heard about it a week ago. I finally got to see it today in the cinema.

The journalists won't talk about this issue, nor will the TV industry, the state or even the Irish society, most of whom are unaware of these lives hidden away from mainstream society like the plague. So I wish to shout out to the world how PROUD I am of this socially conscious Irishman Frank Berry, who through the media of film, is tackling societal plagues such as the Irish prison system, the impact of suicides on Irish society and through 'Aisha', the treatment of traumatised people arriving on Irish shores and soil seeking asylum and refuge (not to be confused with Ukraine war refugees, who are being treated differently, probably because they are white and European).

Ireland needs a hundred thousand more social realists like Frank Berry to awaken people, especially the privileged, to rise above and beyond their own selves and create a compassionate and just society from lessons learned from the past.

To quote Frank Berry : "What I found really interesting was how this system speaks to our past. It's another oppressive system like the industrial schools. The last mother and baby home was, I think, closed down in 1995. And the first direct provision centre opened in 1999. There are conversations to be had about how these systems were developed for profit." - IrishTimes, 12Nov2022

Letitia Wright is an amazing actress capable of enormous emotional depth that she shows through her eyes, her silence, her voice, her muscle armouring and her movements. It was lovely to see Josh who played Prince Charles in The Crown, play the lead male role here nailing the Irish accent!

I will not say anymore on this movie except to watch it and if you (like fellow reviewer johnpaulmoloney-35109) are unable to empathise with what you see, then to try and find gratitude for your blessings in life lest life decides to put you through similar suffering or worse in the hopes of teaching you humility and compassion for other human beings, in this short life on earth.

You've been abused but managed to escape from terror, to a land you hoped would treat people much fairer, but you're stuck inside a scheme, that destroys your self-esteem, you had no choice, but this all feels like a great error. They don't believe that you're at risk if you return, although you feel they do not care of your concern, but with little evidence, you cannot give a great defence, of the murder, rape and torment that still burns.

Letitia Wright is outstanding as the asylum seeker living in limbo, dehumanised by a system that's in place to protect but ultimately treats people like beggars and thieves. With Josh O'Connor providing sympathetic support and empathy, this film makes a good companion piece to The Swimmers which tackles a similar theme but through a different escape.

"Aisha" (Letitia Wright) has been seeking asylum in Ireland for some while when she encounters and builds a friendship with the security guard at her hostel. He, "Conor" (John O'Connor) has a bit of baggage of his own, and the two find a certain comfort in supporting each other as she is moved to a rural caravan park where she must continue her quest for residency. There's no doubt that both Wright and O'Connor deliver decent efforts here, but somehow the underlying story left me rather underwhelmed. Why Ireland? Is it just the most porous part of the EU? There is little context given as to that choice, and so when her struggles against the bureaucracy become more difficult, I felt that whilst I empathised with her predicament, I couldn't quite see why this was an Irish problem? The presentation of her as an asylum seeker is largely predicated on the skills of Wright as an engaging actor, rather than of any depth to her characterisation that could enable a neutral to make the judgements the film is clearly steering us to make. It all has a certain degree of entitlement to it, and the writer and director needed to work much harder to present the audience with a legitimacy to the story, not just to rely on an assumption that the innate kindness and sympathy we ought to feel would be forthcoming. This needed much more development and balance - those doing immigration management jobs portrayed here are usually shown as uncaring and unfeeling in an almost lazy fashion - and that compromises the whole integrity of the story. The complexities of this scenario are over-simplified here, and I think an opportunity to raise awareness of this - on both sides - has been largely missed.