User Reviews

Maryam arrives in the UK as an illegal immigrant then tries to claim asylum in this confused short film . I say confused because I have a large amount of difficulty in what it's trying to say to the audience . Certainly we are supposed to be on the side of Maryam and there's no way anyone is going to confuse this with having a " Little Englander " agenda , it's just that if it's to be viewed as polemical statement it fails to a large extent

I have to point out to readers overseas that asylum and illegal immigration are the hottest hot potatoes in British politics . When NON PEOPLE was made a year ago tabloid headlines were screaming about the number of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers being granted leave to stay in this country and the British home office meekly bleated that being signatories to the 1951 UN convention on refugees and EU human rights law they couldn't deport refugees back to their country of origin if there was the slightest danger they'd face either the death penalty or inhuman treatment even if their application for asylum had been turned down . This is the political context that NON PEOPLE is set in

To be fair the drama does point out that Maryam is given a council house house and a £40 ( About 70 dollars ) allowance by the state which while accurate is different from what all the do gooders say about the way asylum seekers are treated by the British state . It's this honesty from director / writer / producer Elena Karathanassi which confuses the drama because later on we're shown something dishonest where Maryam has her application for asylum turned down ( The application takes a ridiculously short time . Normally this process takes many months and often several years ) and finds herself living on the streets with absolutely no money . In real life even if Maryam's application had been turned down she'd still have been given residency and benefits paid for by the British taxpayer

I can't say I was impressed by NON PEOPLE . It's confused since it says illegal immigrants are badly treated AND well treated by the British state and the technical aspects are hardly outstanding either , though perhaps the murky cinematography is an attempt to make the story look like a fly on the wall documentary . The one stand out aspect is the performance of Bita Taghani as Maryam and I'm slightly surprised that this is her sole appearance in anything

Maryam enters the UK in a white van and is dropping in London early one morning to fend for herself. Searching for food and shelter she eventually claims asylum and is put up by the state in a council house with meagre benefits to live on. However her problems may not end there and she finds her claim rejected in a couple of weeks and is soon back out on the street in a strange country where she is greeted with suspicion and rejection.

I must admit that, as I often am, I'm in the shadow of comments Theo has already made on this title. He is right to point out the controversy that this subject raises and the banner headlines that come with it in the red tops, and right to point out the influence it must have had on this film. However this doesn't mean that the film necessarily has to be making a political point one way or the other – it can just be a story. However the bits of the film that go away from reality show which direction the film is trying to spin; namely the bit where Maryam is very quickly rejected and put out on the street. As Theo said, the reality is more that claims can take years and, even when rejected asylum seekers can still live here on benefits.

So this aspect of it shows its opinions but mostly it is just a story rather than a pointed attack on the system. The title of the film is "non people" and not "crap system" so we understand that the film is about Maryam and not the UK asylum system (although we see its impact on her). As such it nearly works because the character is well delivered by Taghavi with a natural and convincing performance. However the fact that the film gradually becomes more slanted towards the "look at the poor asylum seeker" approach means that the character study is lessened. A nice try and a good performance but the gradual revealing of politic slanting tends to undermine it as it goes – ironically it might have been more interesting if it had just come out all guns blazing with its colours nailed to the mast.