Le Havre

When a dockworker hears some strange noises emanating from a box recently arrived from Gabon, he's maybe not so surprised to discover that it's cargo is human - and bound for London. Detained by the immigration officials, the young and nimble "Idrissa" (Blondin Miguel) manages to evade his captors and whilst in flight encounters the slightly down-at-heel "Marcel" (André Wilms). The older man takes pity on this nervous new arrival and takes him into his home whilst they decide what's best to do next. It's a small town community and pretty quickly just about everyone at the local pub knows who and where the youngster is, but instead of turning him in, they decide that maybe they can help him. He's no thief, nor malcontent - just a young man bewildered and personable. As "Marcel" begins to learn a little more of his new charge, he determines to try and help him make it to the UK - but with a grudging fifth-columnist amongst their friends and the determined "Insp. Monet" (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) on his trail, things are not going to be a simple case of jumping onto the Eurostar. "Marcel" has other emotional fish to fry, too, as his ailing wife languishes in an hospital facing a prognosis that we, the audience, appreciate but he does not, as yet, know. Choices have to be made and priorities established for everyone as time and circumstances close in. I found there to be a strong and effective dynamic between Wilms and the young Miguel here, and the sparing script allows the characters to breathe and us to observe their respective, and ultimately conjoined, predicaments as the lad struggles without any real roots. At times it has a slightly documentary-style look to it, which adds a little authenticity to the investigative aspects of the drama - a policeman who does his job efficiently, but does he relish it? It packs quite a bit of food for thought into ninety minutes, and does ask us a few questions about our own attitudes - "There but for the grace of God" sort of things. It doesn't attempt to deliver much by way of the relative merits of illegal immigration nor of heinous people trafficking, per se, but again we are presented with a canvas that's drawn by just about everyone - friend and foe - but not much by the young man himself.