Court TV deserves some kudos for this film. Layla Alizada in her first major role as the desperate asylum applicant fleeing from Taliban-controlled Afghan really makes us care about her plight. The flashback scenes from her past hark back to those clandestinely filmed scenes of brutality toward women that were smuggled out of that country. Her acting is understated and moving. Juliette Lewis' performance as the securities lawyer who is a fish-out-of-water in the New York immigration courts is less convincing, but it doesn't undermine the power of the film too much.
It is a well-done depiction of the many hurdles that our immigration system places on those who manage to escape terrible oppression and make it here without their `papers.' I don't deny the difficulties facing immigration judges in presiding over such a system, but the Bush Administration's policy of automatic detention (read `jail') of asylum applicants (often lengthy) and its removal of sympathetic Board of Immigration Appeals members has made this situation worse.
Every member of Congress ought to see this film-but it is also a compelling story well told.
