Review of London River

By coincidence I got to see this film on a 9/11. I have not seen any of the previous films of Rachid Bouchareb, but I heard a lot about 'Indigenes' and I liked 'Flanders' that he produced. This film is quite low tone, but emotional and direct. In the aftermath of the terror attacks in London two parents look for their children. She is an English farmer widower from a remote island, he is from Africa, a Muslim and guest worker in France. Everything separates the two at first sight - religion, language, race and especially prejudice. They will get together because of the shared fate of their children, and they will go together through the painful phases of inquietude, fear, hope, and despair. They get to know each other, but this does not prevent destiny to hit them. I liked the fact that the film does not try to soften in anyway their paths, and avoided some of the traps that other types of endings or intrigues place in similar movies. Multicultural London filmed in a neutral and yet familiar way is the perfect background of the story that includes some racial tensions elements without insisting too much on them. Without avoiding completely simplification and a feeling of expected this direct approach plays quite well, and is immensely helped by the great acting of the two lead characters, especially Sotigui Kouyaté. This is not the ultimate film about the events that shattered London in July 2005, but rather a simple story about how usual people get are impacted by such events, an efficient and direct movie even if not great cinema.