Directors: Frank Berry
Writers: Frank Berry
Stars: Letitia Wright, Josh O’Connor
Synopsis: While caught for years in Ireland’s immigration system Aisha Osagie develops a close friendship with former prisoner Conor Healy. This friendship soon looks to be short lived as Aisha’s future in Ireland comes under threat.
Frank Berry’s Aisha opens with a group of people moving joyously to drums. Dancing and reaching – freedom of movement and expression which is soon curtailed by an argument over who has the right to be in the recreation room. Wherever the people are they are on contested ground. That place is Ireland, and they are in a temporary refugee centre.
Aisha (Letitia Wright) is a young Nigerian woman, fragile in frame, but steeled against the consistent blockages and aggressions both small and large from the Irish immigration services. “You keep this up, and see where it gets you,” she is warned. Her transgression is to ask that the centre pass on vital information to her in a timely manner, or to be given “permission” to eat food which conforms to her religious background. To be granted asylum she has to jump through not only the bureaucratic hoops set up by an antagonistic system but also weather constant dehumanisation.
A newcomer to the Embankment Security Services, Conor (Josh O’Connor) finds Aisha’s attitude curious and strikes up a tentative friendship with her. He’s not the brightest spark – in fact Aisha is far more educated than he, but he’s gentle and good humored. He has a vulnerability to him which Aisha responds to. Later we find out that Conor is an ex-prisoner who is carrying scars from abuse. His honesty with Aisha leads to her feeling she can perhaps open up about what occurred in Nigeria.
Berry doesn’t shy away from the cruelty and ignorance which exists within Ireland. People simply don’t know basic information such as the official language of Nigeria is English. Aisha’s forbearance only extends so far. She doesn’t dislike the general populace of Ireland – but she is made constantly aware that she is “other” to them. As in life, there is no monolith – Aisha’s boss at the hairdressing salon is supportive and offers her accommodation when she is randomly moved south to Glentill. The Glentill supervisor is kind to her. The varied faces in the film represent “process” more often than people.
Aisha is seeking an international protection order which will lead to a petition to remain. What happened to her in Nigeria is horrifying and Berry takes his time revealing the full extent of what happened to Aishatu and her family (her mother being the only surviving member trapped in Lagos). Because Aisha is not only witnessed the death of her father and brother but was sexually assaulted – she is unable to remember “details” in the manner expected from Immigration services.
One of the most powerful scenes in the film is made up of voices speaking ostensibly to Aisha – but speaking directly to the audience. Women speak of the fear of deportation, but also of their constant re-traumatisation by immigration services. “We were tortured there, and we are punished for that here” is the consistent sentiment.
There is more than a touch of Ken Loach in Berry’s film. Social realism lost a legend with the retirement of Loach, but directors such as Frank Berry exist to keep the flame burning. To question the institutions extant in one’s own country with nuance is complex. Berry also doesn’t suggest there is an easy solution – Aisha doesn’t wrap up with a definitive ending.
Letitia Wright is giving the finest performance of her career thus far. As Aishatu Osagie she expresses emotions which range from determination to dissociation. The romance that never can be with Conor (a wonderfully understated performance by O’Connor) is the closest thing she has to unconditional support in Ireland. Aisha’s weariness and rage blur into a state where she is losing a sense of self. Aisha was once a daughter, a sister, a person – but through an act of heinous violence in Nigeria and four years caught in the purgatory of the immigration system she becomes none of those things.
Aisha is a profoundly humanistic piece of cinema. Berry used experiences shared by people seeking asylum in Ireland to inform his script. By foregrounding Wright and O’Connor as the key performances, Aisha lets other voices be heard – voices of the dispossessed in Ireland and those around the world. We hear people, we see people – even if for only a few moments – and understand there is person asking they be granted safety. Aisha is social realism at its finest.
