HIFF
A boy and his mother do what it takes to survive
in a new world in Pawel Pawilikovsky's
"Last Resort."

At ‘Last,’ a harsh
tale of immigrant
experience rings true

"Last Resort"
Screens at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday
1/2

By Scott Vogel

Star-Bulletin

Pawel Pawilikovsky's "Last Resort" is a gritty, exceptionally well-acted story of contemporary emigration. There's nothing romantic or even Ellis Island-ish about the London that greets a young Russian woman and her young son when they arrive at Heathrow Airport.

Expecting to be met by the woman's fiance, they are instead detained by British immigration which, after a series of interrogations, classifies the pair as refugees and packs them off to a compound in a bleak, seaside town. Adding to their disillusion is the realization that the recent arrivals will be treated as prisoners, forced to ration food and phone calls, completely uncertain of when or if they will ever be allowed to leave.

There's something incredibly authentic about this film, which is almost documentary-like in its depiction of the immigrant experience, and also something completely contemporary. The temptations of recent arrivals, for instance, are of a new order. A Brit who runs a sleazy cybersex Web site offers to pay the woman a few hundred pounds a day to disrobe live in front of a worldwide Internet audience. Her son, meanwhile, becomes involved in a children's network of underground thievery.

Known as Stonehaven, this dismal world, which even a young boy calls "the armpit of the universe," is awash in corruption, with some prisoners bribing officials to escape the camp, and others selling their blood to pay for the money to bribe. The last thing it seems like is a resort, and the irony of the film's title is even deeper when you consider that these emigres are not unwashed vagrants. She is an illustrator of children's books and her son, a bright young boy, speaks English better than many natives. Like the residents of war-torn Kosovo, they give new meaning to the refugee experience.

"Are you a refugee?" asks an immigration official when they first arrive in England. "A refugee by accident," the woman replies. Like many accidents, theirs has both its tragic and happy sides, and Pawilikovsky's film chronicles their bittersweet struggle perfectly.

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