Mark Kermode, Observer film critic 

Leave to Remain review – Britain seen through desperate eyes

Mark Kermode enjoys this low-budget film made by asylum seekers
  
  

Leave to Remain, film
Leave to Remain: 'convincing and engaging'. Photograph: PR

"What defines the past? You cannot get rid of it." Bruce Goodison's tale of refugees seeking the right to remain in the UK through the retelling of various harrowing stories raises questions of where people come from and where they are now. Born out of a three-year project to give young asylum seekers the chance to learn film-making skills, this ambitious low-budget feature lends an authentic voice to often marginalised figures. If the more melodramatic strains of the script (co-written with Charlotte Colbert) are occasionally at odds with the cast's naturalistic input, the overall picture remains convincing and engaging.

 

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