Sitting in Limbo

Amber Rudd and Theresa May both have a lot to answer for in their careers and few errors of judgement are as shameful as this story, which is still a dreadful stain on the history of Britian.

Anthony Bryan, though Jamican born has lived and worked in the UK all of his life when his Mother came over as part of the Windrush era on the promise of work and opporturnity. If ever a family served as a prime example of hard working immigrants just seeking an honest days pay and a better life, then Bryan and his family were it, with a Mother who served as a nurse for the NHS for thirty years, she's now in poor health and living back in Jamica so when Anthony applies for a new passport to travel back and see her, his status as a British Citizen is brought in at the worst time possible - when the Home Office implemented its new policy to push immigration as an election issue and allocated their teams the job of finding cases that they could propell at the door as fast as possible in order to meet targets. This was incidentally a policy which the Home Office at first denied then later admitted to which led to the resignation of Amber Rudd (Not, notably Theresa May who became destined to be one the worst, unfeeling and uncaring Prime Ministers of UK history, so she had another role awaiting her)

The film follows the cold and complex system of Iimmigration that Anthony and his family are dragged into, which results in him losing his job and his home, with little compensation on the horizon for either, until finally he's forced to take on a solictor he cannot afford in order to seek justice.

It's bad enough that such things should be happening in a modern Britain of 2017 so its quite right and proper that the issue should receive dramatic focus and the cast here take to their roles with great gusto. The pairing of massively underated actor Patrick Robinson and fabulous Nadine Marshall is excellent casting, as Anthony Bryan and his partner Janet who find their lives unravelled as a result of the heartless actions of an uncaring government who employ an equally uncaring group of personnel to weed out the 'low hanging fruit' to add to their immigration targets. The supporting cast of Pippa Bennet-Warner, Jay Simpson and C.J Beckford do really well with largely unwritten roles as a group of family and friends going up against a bureacractic machine whose soul purpose is there to send people home to countries they're no longer familiar with. Piers Morgan, seen briefly in a historical news clip, summed the simplicity of the issue from the perspective of the protagonists - He's British, get him his Passport and let him go him and visit his Mother in Jamaica.

These events will go down as one of the most embarassing stains on British history, up there with Stephen Lawrence, Hillsborough, The Marchioness disaster, to name but a few, where the ordinary people are forced to take on a bastion of the establishment to find Justice. Compelling and important viewing and let's see Baftas for Robinson and Marshall please.

This is a shocking true story of Anthony Bryan who was a victim of the Windrush scandal. A honest hard working man who had spent 50 years living and working in the UK. Married with children who were UK citizens who's life was ruined over a three year period.

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary the British government seemed determined to deport Mr Bryant to Jamaica based on what amounted to a lost passport.

Sadly not all victims of the Windrush scandal were as fortunate as Mr Bryant many were wrongfully deported and many are still awaiting compensation.

The performances from the whole cast are terrific in particular Patrick Robinson in the lead roll. 8/10

Year 1948. Post-WWII era.. British government invited around 500+ workers from Jamaica to settle in UK to help rebuild their country. The first batch of those settlers embarked HMT Empire Windrush. Their offsprings are known as the Windrush generation in UK. In 2010, the Home office destroyed the landing cards of thousands of Windrush immigrants and in 2012, David Cameron's administration formed a committee called hostile environment working group that echoed a broader rancour towards migrants in the UK. As the local officers and managers kept hunting for 'low hanging fruit' (easy target), some 850 people were wrongly detained between 2012-17. And one of them was Anthony Bryan. This is his dramatic memoir of his ordeal. Patrick Robinson delivers a mature immaculate performance. An eye opening and thought provoking drama as often we turn a blind eye to the struggles and challenges that 'not legal' migrants face. As Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary who later resigned, apologized that this policy was a mistake and she said that she saw this only as an individual issue not as a systemic problem.. A must watch ..

This film was incredibly moving, as its story and brilliant presentation eliminated any sight of actors. It simply allowed a loving family to play out its tragedy before my eyes. Within ten minutes of watching this film, I quickly realized that I wasn't sneaking a peek at the injustice sought upon strangers from a foreign land but rather how easy it was for me, as an American, to not consider any other nationality of people to be a government's target for soul destruction because of the color of skin. So, quite honestly, this film didn't just educate me but humbled my very existence in the most entertaining way ever.

It is a "must make" film and as such it is important that it is made - that the word gets out there. And... importance can be synonymous with quality - but only to a certain level. Documentaries can, to a large extent, be valued more on the message they convey than their artistic merit.

Sitting Limbo hovers between two genres; the informative and the artistic - as do many other "life story films". The genre is problematic as the end result is; either likely to be accused of diverging from facts under the "artistic licence" OR being true to history and respecting the facts to the point dullness.

Sitting in Limbo certainly edges toward the documentary format - it, unfortunately has not hit the sweet spot in the middle ground. And so recommendations become dependent on preference of style:

If you consider facts superior in importance to dramaturgy - chances are you will appreciate Stella Cor.radio's work. If, on the other hand, you value artistic accomplishments above facts - chances are you will feel Sitting in Limbo runs a little dry.

There is one argument which would make the above redundant, that is; IF the pacing of the film was an artists attempt to lure the viewer into similar frustration as that of our protagonist. If the "why is nothing happening" frustration is actually part of a greater master plan. If so, the greatness is likely to be appreciated by few - but would motivate some very high scoring. In any event - be prepared to feel frustration.