Ever asked yourself whether the differences between people from divergent cultures are numerous or few? Watch London Stories and then ask yourself again. This 60 minute low budget film written and directed by Ryan Claffey and produced by Carl Bryan will challenge your perceptions.
The tag line of the film "Minority is a word. We define its meaning" is essentially what this film does. It sets out to explore the concept of minority by telling the stories of several different London-based families from diverse cultural backgrounds. Each of the stories has its differences and its similarities. The differences are about ethnicity, attitude, sexual orientation and experience. But the similarities are what makes the film really interesting. By very cleverly tying the stories together we are given an insight into how sharing by communicating can make people think in ways they may not have done before. This, together with a cross-cultural desire and need to be accepted, leads to a re-evaluation of sometimes deeply held beliefs and values and, ultimately, to the resolution or mitigation of the unique set of problems affecting each of the families.
Briefly, the families are:
Brothers Adam (Simon Mathews) and Tony (David Wayman) and their father Robert (Tony Sams). Adam is gay and has a partner, Edmond (Richard Angol) while Tony is in a straight relationship with Parminda (Ulrika Krishnamurti). Robert knows about and is very accepting of Tony's relationship but Adam has not yet felt able to tell his father that he's gay.
Perminda's parents are dead and she lives with her brother Sarjit (Jaz Deol). Sarjit, as Parminda's elder brother feels responsible for looking after her and is unhappy at her dating a non-Hindu man.
Darren (Conrad Plentie), Michael (Kyle Turlunch), and Mark (Akpore Uzoh) are three brothers with very different attitudes and lifestyles. Michael, the youngest, is torn between the opposing attitudes of his two brothers and struggles to decide which of his siblings is the better influence.
The individual stories are told in part by a narrator and in part by using a flash-back approach. Using a narrator was, I felt, a master- stroke giving an almost docu-drama feel to the film. I was less sure, to begin with, about the use of flash-back. It made parts of the action difficult to place chronologically. But this misgiving quickly dissolved as the stories unfolded and began to interweave. Most of the cast members are relatively inexperienced but their individual performances were clearly bolstered by their sense of rapport and by good direction. And there were outstanding performances by David Wayman, Conrad Plentie, Kyle Turlunch, and Naomi Grossett (Joanna, Mark's lover). In each case their portrayals were solid, rounded and very well studied so that their characters became very much alive.
Two scenes in particular stood out and gave the film a real sense of gravitas. The first, a major argument between Adam and Edmond in Adam's home was breathtaking in its intensity; while the second, an astoundingly moving scene between Tony, Parminda and Sarjit ended with a tiny comedic touch that was profoundly warming. Given the extremely low budget for this film it achieves much. Quality photography and a wide variety of location shots give the impression that the budget was much bigger than it was. Does it achieve what it set out to do? Go and see it and decide for yourself.
London Stories premières at the Portobello Film Festival, Wednesday 12th September, 2012.
Hache L Jones
