Last Resort

A film set in an English coastal town. Tanya lands at an airport with her son. They have come from Russia. They are waiting for someone. Her fiancé is to meet them. He does not come. Tanya panics and claims asylum. It is a mistake. Once made, the claim cannot be withdrawn. The two are sent to a district. It is called Stonehaven; a town where asylum seekers are held until their claims are decided. The time is not fixed. Twelve months, perhaps more. From there the film is a story of waiting. Tower blocks, wire, vouchers, queues and the sea. The town is an old holiday resort. There is an amusement park and a pier and all of it is shut. Artyom is twelve. He adapts fast; he goes about with other children and learns English. Tanya is stuck. She cannot work, cannot leave, and has no money. An offer comes. Work over the internet; in front of a camera. She does it for a while. Alfie works at the amusement park. He helps them and asks for nothing. What the narrative is interested in is not migration but time: its idea is that the system does not refuse people, it only makes them wait, and that the waiting is itself the method. The narrative does not draw Tanya as a victim. She makes her own decisions and some of them are wrong. A way out appears at the end and it is entirely illegal. The images are cold and grey; the town was shot in winter. It was filmed in Margate and the locations are real. The running time is short; around eighty minutes. Paweł Pawlikowski directed. Dina Korzun, Paddy Considine and Artyom Strelnikov are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes British social realism and narratives about migration. Who it is not for: anyone expecting incident; the narrative is almost entirely waiting and enlarges no line.