![]() Eventually Omar’s desperation reaches a peak (literally and metaphorically) as he tries to reconnect with his older brother, who has stayed in Syria to fight, and from whom Omar has not heard from in some time, obvious implications and all. ![]() Omar’s isolation and homesickness are compounded when police remove a number of the men for working illegally, while Abedi and Wasef ultimately also discover that there is no shelter and solace to be found in this remote outpost. When Omar asks him for Sumac, and explains it is a spice, the shopkeeper retorts that he has spices: ketchup and mustard. A trip to a local ‘supermarket’ provides much amusement, especially for local audiences brought up on the sitcom Still Game, as the turbaned Glaswegian shopkeeper (Sanjeev Kohli) takes offence at a racist epithet unwittingly used by Omar, before wondering whether it is indeed racist "if it comes from another brown person". The humour is everywhere, particularly in the film’s opening half. Omar is a talented musician, but can’t bring himself to play his oud – it doesn’t sound right any more – and the men bond despite their loneliness through pieced together fragments of globalised identities: we first see them in their accommodation watching a bootleg DVD of Friends – an episode where Ross, too, can’t bring himself to play music for a crowd. Boris’ crass attempt at cultural insight – "I used to ride my elephant to work" – is countered by one of the men’s more painfully eloquent responses – "I used to cry myself to sleep before my tears ran dry" – which receives an ovation led by Helga. The skill with which Limbo marries absurdist humour and tragedy is evidenced in a scene where Boris and Helga attempt to teach the men the past tense. ![]() Boris and Helga’s English and Nordic accents betray their similar migratory status, and we assume they arrived in the 1980s and never updated their wardrobe, yet here they are trying to help integrate the men into Western society. We’re introduced to the men through a wonderfully comedic opening, in which Boris (Kenneth Collard) and Helga (Sidse Babett Knudsen) roleplay an excruciating sexual harassment scenario about inappropriate contact ("a smile is not an invitation") to the obvious bafflement of the men. Omar shares accommodation with Farhad (Vikash Bhai), an Afghan who appoints himself as Omar’s agent/manager, as well as the Ghanaian Abedi (Kwabena Ansah) and Wasef (Ola Orebiyi), a Nigerian with dreams of playing for Chelsea, who pretend to be brothers to improve the chances of their asylum claims. ![]() These are men chased to The Edge of the World, though in a reversal to Michael Powell’s tale of the evacuation St Kilda, the small number of refugees housed here have increased the population by around 25% according to one of the mirthless locals. Omar (Amir El-Masry) is one of a number of refugees, all single men, seeking asylum on a remote, windswept Scottish island in the Outer Hebrides. As others have noted, Sharrock’s deadpan comedy brings to mind Aki Kaurismaki and Bill Forsyth – and the recurring phone box in Limbo inevitably recalls Local Hero – but ultimately this is a film brimming with freshness in its ideas and their execution. ![]() A paranoid Gordon fears that his newest business idea has been stolen.Limbo, the second film from writer-director Ben Sharrock after 2015's Pikadero, is a stubbornly funny film of unquenchable sadness. Joe marries Sara and resigns from Westgroup. Mutiny hosts a party for their userbase, just in time for the release of their newest game - "Extract and Defend". ![]()
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