Pawlikowski's brilliant second feature is set in an asylum-seekers
holding hell on the south coast of England, where Russian Tanya
(Korzun) and her son have been abandoned by her English fiancee.
They're befriended by Alfie (Considine), a down-at-heel amusement
arcade worker who begins a tentative courtship of Tanya. The excellent
improvised performances bring the characters vividly and truthfully
to life; the cinematography is sublime, never more so than during the
lead characters' exhilarating bid to escape by boat and their
subsequent beach sojourn. Together with The Low Down, it's the most
astute, contemporary British film for ages.
