Cast: Dina Korzun, Artyom Strelnikov, Paddy Considine, Lindsey Honey
Director: Paul Pavlikovsky
Producer: Ruth Caleb
Screenplay: Paul Pavlikovsky, Rowan Joffe
Cinematography: Ryszard Lenczewski
Music: Max de Wardener
U.S. Distributor: The Shooting Gallery
In English and Russian with subtitles
For anyone who has never experienced the unique fear of being alone, unprotected, and confused in a strange land with a different language, a different culture, and only uncaring bureaucrats to offer "aid", Paul Pavlikovsky's Last Resort presents a taste of the experience. The flavor isn't pleasant, but, by approaching the subject manner in the way he does, Pavlikovsky puts a human face on a problem that often goes by as a blur on the evening news: the tide of refugees and would-be immigrants to Western countries from former Soviet bloc nations. Although this film takes place in England, it could just as easily transpire in the United States (with the Russian characters replaced by South American ones). The motto on the Statue of Liberty, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the tempest-tossed, to me...", doesn't sing as loudly as it once did.
From the government's perspective, the problem with immigrants is that they have to be processed, and there are so many that the system is overloaded. Letting anyone into a country without proper identification and background checks is an invitation to chaos. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, the humanity was leeched out of the process, and the act of integrating immigrants, especially political refugees, has become an assembly line procedure that is demeaning to those undergoing it. In England, where Last Resort takes place, Eastern European and Russian refugees are placed in restricted tenement slums where they await the processing of their paperwork - something that could take 12-16 months. They cannot leave the area - there are fences, guards, and surveillance cameras to prevent that. If they decide they want to return home, the wait is 3-6 months before clearance is granted.
One common means for Russian women to gain entrance to the West is via a Fiancé Visa. Most often, this is all part of a business deal - for a sum of money, a Western citizen agrees to marry a Russian woman, allowing her to enter the country. They stay married for as long as is necessary for her to obtain citizenship, then dissolve the union. Last Resort puts an unusual spin on this story. Tanya (Dina Korzun), a Russian woman with a young son, Artyom (Artyom Strelnikov), has come to the U.K. to be with her fiancé. She comes because of love (or perhaps a romantic fantasy), not because of a business arrangement or because she has a real desire to leave Russia. When her fiancé gets cold feet and no longer wants anything to do with her, Tanya and her son find themselves alone and stranded in an unfamiliar country. They are classified as refugees and placed into the unfeeling system. They are given meal vouchers and a run-down apartment. Just when things look their bleakest, they meet Alfie (Paddy Considine), a local man who offers help and companionship. But money is still scarce, and Tanya begins to consider a lucrative offer by local internet sleaze kingpin Les (Lindsey Honey).
For about an hour, Last Resort is a nearly perfect motion picture, but things unravel a little towards the end. During the final fifteen minutes of this surprisingly short film, the characters act in ways that are not consistent with their previously established personalities. I kept wondering if a key transition scene or two had ended up on the cutting room floor. The problem may be that Pavlikovsky is trying to offer a concrete conclusion to a story that might have been better left more open-ended. There's a forced feeling to the resolution, and, except for a healthy dosage of irony, it doesn't offer much.
Despite my dissatisfaction with the ending, I can think of a number of reasons why Last Resort deserves to be experienced during its two-week run as the inaugural film of The Shooting Gallery's Spring 2001 series. The stark, gray, cheerless atmosphere, enhanced by occasional hand-held camera work and color desaturation, gives the film a powerfully bleak visual look that works on our psyches - like the characters, we're stuck in the "armpit of the universe". Lead actress Dina Korzun reminds me a little of Emily Watson in the way she uses facial expressions and body language to show layers of depth that a more straightforward performance might not uncover. We quickly becomes sympathetic to Tanya's plight because the director does such an effective job of establishing her mindset and creating a bond between her and the audience. Not only is she fighting for herself, but for her son as well, and she can count the number of her true allies on one finger.
Not much happens in Last Resort beyond our being exposed to the sad reality of what happens to a pair of refugees set adrift in England's immigration system. Pavlikovsky could just as easily have focused on one of thousands of other, similar stories. Some might have been more dramatic and eventful, but this one is noteworthy for the strength of the central character. Tanya is a compelling individual, and, during the course of the movie, she has to make some difficult choices (such as whether or not to accept Les' offer to strip in an X-rated Internet chat room). Last Resort does what a good film of its ilk should do: offer a window overlooking a fragment of society that the average viewer is unfamiliar with. The picture does more, of course, but that's it's most notable accomplishment.
© 2001 James Berardinelli