Peter Viney's Blog

Directed by Aleem Khan
Written by Aleem Khan
Music by Chris Roe

Streaming on Amazon Prime (£4.49 to rent)

CAST:

Joanna Scanlan – Mary Hussain
Nathalie Richard – Geneviève
Talid Arris – Solomon
Nasser Memarzia- Ahmed Hussain

This was a post-BAFTAs viewing. Joanna Scanlan got best actress, and we wanted to see why.

It’s low budget BFI / BBC collaboration … only four of the cast are worth naming, and one dies in the first minute and is voice over. Mary is the widow of Ahmed who works on the Dover-Calais ferry … he’s the one who dies in the first minute. She is English but a devout Moslem – lots of extremity washing and praying in Arabic. Ahmed was Pakistani. They’ve known each other since they were fourteen.

Examining his wallet she finds reference to Geneviève and goes to Calais to discover who she is.

Mary is mistaken for a new cleaner (what with looking Moslem, though having a classically Christian christian name) and goes along with it, only to discover that Ahmed had a wife in every port, or both ports – or rather a long term partner. Ahmed is the father of Geneviève’s son, Solomon. Solomon has gay proclivities. She also sees a photo of Ahmed drinking alcohol, when at home they had been both strict observers of Islamic rules.

There’s a kind of class thing … Geneviève is clearly well-educated, sophisticated and pretty well-off.

A continuing theme is Mary going out to the top of the white cliffs of Dover as she always did to watch his ship come in. She replays his last loving Voicemail. You see a great deal of the white cliifs of Dover (with not a bluebird in sight). I kept expecting to see King Lear staggering along the edge.

We had subtitles on. So this is what you get a BAFTA for:

• breathing shakily (many times)
• shuddering breathing (several times)
• praying tearfully (twice)
• continuing crying
• breathing heavily
• grunting softly
• sobbing
• sniffling
• whining
• gasping

And its all done very well too. Add visuals:

• letting her hair down
• putting a headscarf on
• examining breasts
• massaging scar below navel

Then watching the bigger picture:

• White Cliffs of Dover crumbling
• Ceiling cracking

The music is very good indeed.

She gives a good performance in a shortish film (89 minutes. The film is mildly dull, poignant but not one that will stick in my memory.

I also seriously doubt the premise of working on a ferry on that route and having a life at either end. Nowadays it’s 90 minutes crossing, though I recall it in the past (when this is set) as two and a half hours. Surely the crew would do shifts that brought them back to where they started … load / cross / unload / load new vehicles/ cross / unload. OK, in a bad storm they might have to overnight at the other end, but surely not on a regular basis? Also, why would she go out and stand on the cliff to watch for the ship on a daily basis? I’d bet with overtime some crews did the return journey twice in a day. I simply didn’t believe that aspect … but then that’s the story blown away.

For me, it’s the ethnic dimension that leads to the interest and award. For me, Catriona Balfe in Belfast should have walked the BAFTA best actress this year.