Always on Sunday: London River

Brenda Blethyn was the reason we decided to start watching the 2009 French film London River, directed by Rachid Bouchareb, but she and several other things too were the reason we continued to watch and much enjoy this quiet, stately film about two parents (Elizabeth and Ousmane) who have come to London to find out what happened to their respective missing children, following the July 7, 2005 terrorist attacks there.

    The other actor whose performance rewarded us was Sotigui Kouyaté (1933-2010), who, according to the Internet Movie Database, had staged numerous plays in Europe and Africa, many of which he adapted or wrote himself, and was the founder of the Mandeka Theatre in Bamako. In this movie he plays Ousmane, who is a Muslim and hasn't seen his son (now 21) for fifteen years, since Ousmane left West Africa to work in France. Elizabeth (played by Blethyn) has come from a small farming community in Guernsey and is surprised, even shocked and disbelieving, to learn that her daughter has been studying Arabic....

    That unexpected twist, and the revelation that the two missing young people began living together a couple of weeks earlier, are among the intriguing story elements that kept us intently interested in a film without any Hollywood-style "action" effects.
    We watched by way of Netflix instant download.