Last Resort (2000)

Director:

Pawel Pawlikowski

Writers:

Rowan Joffe (writer)
Pawel Pawlikowski (writer)

Release Date:

2 March 2001 (Greece)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

When a young Russian woman and her son leave Moscow to meet her fiancé, who fails to show up, she declares political asylum. |

Plot Keywords:

Political Asylum | Russian | Mother Son Relationship | Bureaucracy | Racial Discrimination

Awards:

13 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Dina Korzun	...	Tanya
Artyom Strelnikov	...	Artyom
Paddy Considine	...	Alfie
Steve Perry	...	Les (as Lindsey Honey)
Perry Benson	...	Immigration Officer
Katie Drinkwater	...	Katie
Dave Bean	...	Frank
Adrian Scarborough	...	Council Official
David Auker	...	2nd Council Official
Bruce Byron	...	Police Officer
Jim Trevellyan	...	Station Guard
Marcus Redwood	...	Cafe Owner
Zoe Sharpe	...	Gang Girl
Daniel Mobey	...	Danny

Runtime:

73 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Russian

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

France:U | Hong Kong:IIB | Netherlands:12 | Spain:13 | Sweden:7 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Margate, Kent, England, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Quotes:

[Tanya and Artyom have been returned to Stonehaven after trying to walk to London]
Council Official: Can you confirm your name, please?
Tanya: Tat'yana Krush-i-na.
Council Official: You should have registered here yesterday. This is a general information pack. These are your food and toiletry vouchers for the week.
Tanya: But, I don't need them. I want to go to London.
Council Official: No, you can't do that.
Tanya: Why?
Council Official: You've applied for political asylum.
Tanya: Yes, and so?
Council Official: All applicants must stay in their designated holding areas. Look, it's in here.
[...]

Soundtrack:

Happy Heart

Don't hit the pornographer

Hot on the heels of news that the british are reputed to be the most rascist nation in the EU comes this elucidation of why that may be the case. A russian woman comes to england to meet her fiance and is only allowed in to the country if she applies for refugee status. told she has to stay in a detention centre for a year and a half and given only food vouchers and terrible accomodation to live on. At this point the movie could turn into a kafkaesque fable but instead is an ultra-naturalistic study of live in british emigration centres.

It's a film that's cautiously optimistic about human nature, as a deus ex machina in the form of sweet, loving Paddy Consadine comes to save her from what he himself describes as a hell hole. This annoyed me a little bit; it seemed to be putting across the message that the english are really tolerant towards foreign immigrants and that it's "The System" that mistreats them. This seems a bit fanciful to me.

One other thing that annoyed was that the only person to be hurt was an internet pornographer who pays the woman the equivalent of a month's wages back home for about an hour's striptease work. Is it really him that deserves to be hurt, and not the government, the immigration authorities, and the editors of rabble-rousing right-wing newspapers?

But this is a warm, generous, beautifully shot, human film that i fear will never be seen by the people who need to see it most.