Aisha

Frank Berry's 2022 film follows a Nigerian woman living in a centre for asylum seekers in Ireland. Aisha fled her country after members of her family were killed and has spent years inside an application that never concludes. Letitia Wright carries the role almost entirely through silence. The real subject is the waiting system itself. Ireland's direct provision arrangement holds asylum seekers in centres for years without permission to work; meal times, room changes and arbitrary transfers determine the whole of daily life. Berry shows this with documentary attention. The relationship with the security guard played by Josh O'Connor adds a bond on a human scale. But the film does not turn it into a rescue narrative; the system stays stronger than personal goodwill. Who it's for: those who like socially realist films about migration and asylum systems. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a hopeful outcome; the film offers no resolution and leaves the waiting as waiting.