Aisha
Letitia Wright stars in a touching, human Irish drama that enables her to excel.
Letitia Wright and Josh O’Connor
With Britain's Home Secretary Suella Braverman choosing to regard the arrival of immigrants on our shores as an invasion, the arrival on our screens of Aisha could not be more timely. It is a study of the plight confronting a Nigerian asylum seeker named Aisha, a role played by Letitia Wright, and in this particular case it takes place in Ireland. It has to be admitted the film contains few fresh insights, but current governmental attitudes in Britain only serve to make it important that art proclaiming the need to treat immigrants with humanity should continue to be made.
Aisha is the first film in five years from the Irish writer/director Frank Berry. It was in 2018 that I encountered his work for the first time when I recommended Michael Inside which he had made the year before. In that work he was dealing with the adverse impact of prison sentences on young offenders and the tone of Aisha is absolutely in line with both the critical concern and the deep underlying humanity that were key to giving Michael Inside its character. In his new film two roles are central. Aisha herself is the vital figure, but Conor (Josh O’Connor) who befriends her also features prominently. They meet because Conor takes a job as a security guard in the accommodation centre that houses Aisha who is waiting for her case to be considered having arrived two years earlier in a bid to find in Ireland the safety lacking in her own country.
As the film proceeds, we learn bit by bit the details of Aisha's back history. Her life had fallen into crisis when her father and her brother had been murdered as an act of reprisal when the father had proved unable to repay the loan that he had unwisely obtained from a dubious source to cover her school fees. When we meet Aisha, she at least has a job (she is trying to support her mother who is still in Nigeria), but she is waiting for an interview about her situation which will then at long last lead to a hearing and a decision on her claim for asylum. In time we are told enough of Aisha’s story for the audience to identify fully with her, but in the case of Conor the picture is somewhat less distinct. We discover that he is a former addict who had spent time in jail, but he clearly wants to put that behind him and, somewhat hesitant and lacking in self-belief, he emerges as something of a lost soul. We believe in him even if a more detailed portrait would probably have added to our empathy with him.
Aisha is a personal story and, as such, it is fictional but nevertheless based on real experiences as the film states at the outset. In addition, it is also a study of the system that is in place to deal with immigrants who seek to live in Ireland. If the long delays experienced by applicants are bad enough, we witness too how the rules and regulations were made without regard for human feelings. At one point Aisha is forced to move to a fresh centre in a rural location rendering it impossible for her to continue her job and later she faces a terrible choice when told that if she goes back to Nigeria to attend a funeral, she will forfeit the chance of having her claim approved. The point is also well made that the risk of being refused despite having a good case can understandably encourage applicants to embroider the facts for fear of rejection. Early on in the film one residence manager is portrayed very unsympathetically which could imply that this film is rigged propaganda. That makes it important to point out that other authority figures are shown in a far more sympathetic light, but in any case it is easy to believe that even the worst attitudes depicted are all too close to what often happens.
Anyone who appreciates the work of Ken Loach should find Aisha very sympathetic for its tone is close to his. Josh O'Connor readily adopts the requisite style by underplaying and avoiding any sense of fictional drama, but there is no doubt where the film’s heart is to be found. Forsaking big budget movies to fit in this small heartfelt work is very much to the credit of Letitia Wright and in the process she gives a performance which, without being in any way showy, stands out as one of the best by an actress in 2022. She is the film’s motor and she is wonderful.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Letitia Wright, Josh O’Connor, Lorcan Cranitch, Stuart Graham, Denis Conway, Rosemary Aimyekagbon, Ruth McCabe, Tara Flynn, Emmet Byrne, Abdul Alshareef, Adebambo Ruykaya Momoh.
Dir Frank Berry, Pro Tristan Lynch, Aoife O’Sullivan, Donna Eperon and Sam Bisbee, Screenplay Frank Berry, Ph Tom Comerford, Pro Des Tamara Conboy, Ed Colin Campbell, Music Daragh O’Toole, Costumes Kathy Strachan.
Subotica/BBC Film/Wavelength/World of Ha Productions-Sky Cinema.
94 mins. Ireland. 2022. UK Rel: 17 November 2022. Cert. 12A.
