Aisha

Great movie to depict the situation in the direct provision centers in Ireland, and the way The asylum seekers applications are brutally refused despite the obvious dangers threatening them in their home country. The romance and connection happening on the side is also so beautiful. It shows the friendship and human connection regardless of race and status which so pure.

I also liked the scenes where it implied asking about someone's nationality is not appropriate since nobody wants to be judged based on their nationality if they come from a poor country.

I hope more and more people in Ireland watch this movie, and it helps to improve the situation of refugees in this country. I enjoyed this movie and totally recommend it.

You've been abused but managed to escape from terror, to a land you hoped would treat people much fairer, but you're stuck inside a scheme, that destroys your self-esteem, you had no choice, but this all feels like a great error. They don't believe that you're at risk if you return, although you feel they do not care of your concern, but with little evidence, you cannot give a great defence, of the murder, rape and torment that still burns.

Letitia Wright is outstanding as the asylum seeker living in limbo, dehumanised by a system that's in place to protect but ultimately treats people like beggars and thieves. With Josh O'Connor providing sympathetic support and empathy, this film makes a good companion piece to The Swimmers which tackles a similar theme but through a different escape.

Letitia Wright is the unique selling point of Aisha. She gives a fantastic performance. Watch her body language, the things she doesn't say, it's all in her eyes. It's a beautiful measured performance. Josh O' Connor gives her good support, eventhough his character sometimes feels a bit too goog to be true. There could have been some more fleshing out there. The movie itself is a timely complaint about the insufferable way asylum seekers are treated by the system. Never a break, always a new form to be complied, a interview with friendly if slightly uninterested caseworkers to be taken. It's a dehumanising treatment. The cruelty seems to be the point. Director Frank Berry shows it all in long takes, documentary like hitting his point home.

"Aisha" (Letitia Wright) has been seeking asylum in Ireland for some while when she encounters and builds a friendship with the security guard at her hostel. He, "Conor" (John O'Connor) has a bit of baggage of his own, and the two find a certain comfort in supporting each other as she is moved to a rural caravan park where she must continue her quest for residency. There's no doubt that both Wright and O'Connor deliver decent efforts here, but somehow the underlying story left me rather underwhelmed. Why Ireland? Is it just the most porous part of the EU? There is little context given as to that choice, and so when her struggles against the bureaucracy become more difficult, I felt that whilst I empathised with her predicament, I couldn't quite see why this was an Irish problem? The presentation of her as an asylum seeker is largely predicated on the skills of Wright as an engaging actor, rather than of any depth to her characterisation that could enable a neutral to make the judgements the film is clearly steering us to make. It all has a certain degree of entitlement to it, and the writer and director needed to work much harder to present the audience with a legitimacy to the story, not just to rely on an assumption that the innate kindness and sympathy we ought to feel would be forthcoming. This needed much more development and balance - those doing immigration management jobs portrayed here are usually shown as uncaring and unfeeling in an almost lazy fashion - and that compromises the whole integrity of the story. The complexities of this scenario are over-simplified here, and I think an opportunity to raise awareness of this - on both sides - has been largely missed.

Letitia Wright owns this film as Aisha, an immigrant from Nigeria seeking refuge in Ireland. The actress appears in almost every frame and her performance is worthy of an Oscar nomination.

Her father has been killed and she and her mother raped by vicious loan sharks and she is shown navigating the asylum system in Ireland. A security guard at a shelter befriends her and the young woman is moved from place to place as she must attend hearing after hearing, reciting her terrible story to a long line of unsympathetic paper pushers. I am sure that it is pretty much the same here in ther United States.

I hope that Aisha will be Ireland's entry for an Academy Award.