There’s something truly surreal about two West African men arguing about whether Ross and Rachel were on a “break.” Why would they care? Why should they care? How do they even know? The answer is there just ain’t much to do in the islands of northern Scotland, and there’s even less when you have neither possessions nor income. The one thing these guys do have is “Friends” on pirated DVD. What better way to introduce the ex-citizens of Ghana to the mystery of white people?
Titles don’t get any more apt than Limbo, a film about people waiting and waiting and waiting. Their lives are neither good nor bad; they’re on hold. And they seem to be on hold indefinitely while the metaphorical wait music is “I’ll Be There for You” by The Rembrandts.
Omar (Amir El-Masry) was a musician in Syria. Like everything in his life, that too is on hold. A broken wrist keeps him from playing his oud, which is a little like a cross between a guitar and a pot-bellied pig. We the audience don’t discover if Omar is any good at the thing until the end credits are queued up, but that doesn’t stop Omar from toting his awkward talisman everywhere he goes.
Like Limbo itself, Omar is even and accepting. He’s not given to emotional displays of any kind. We know he FEELS emotions. He’s escaped war-torn Syria. His parents fled to Turkey; his older brother still fights the war they left behind. You would have to be a robot not to care. His friend
Farhad (Vikash Bhai), an Afghan refugee, has no problem displaying his own hopes and dreams. Resembling a middle-aged Freddie Mercury, Farhad happily invites the comparison while he tells you about Zoroastrianism (which, admittedly, I had to look up). Together, Omar Farhad, and their new West African friends Wasef and Abedi (Ola Orebiyi and Kwabena Ansah) share an ill-furnished duplex where nothing happens and there’s no incentive to leave for any reason. They have no money; they aren’t allowed to work; the sparse and random natives seem to range from indifferent to hostile.
Limbo is never going to win any MTV or people’s choice awards. The amount of true action in the film could probably be summed up in one COVID morning. But it’s an honest film, one that has chosen to take a good long look at immigration policies and how such might affect actual real live honest-to-Allah human beings. Much as I found myself wishing for a sharper plot or dialogue or –quite frankly- anything noteworthy to happen, I found it impossible not to feel for Omar and the plight of those stuck in Limbo. It’s embarrassing when wealthy nations like my own don’t have a more generous policy towards immigrants and refugees. We have the power to make lives better, lots of them, everywhere, but we don’t even seem to care about improving our own.
Omar’s life was half-assed bullocks
Refugees are often treated as pox
Hey friend, don’t you fret
Don’t give up just yet
Maybe someone will abandon an X-box
Rated R, 104 Minutes
Director: Ben Sharrock
Writer: Ben Sharrock
Genre: What other people have to go through
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Refugees
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: MAGA
