Ali & Ava

The fourth feature from writer-director Clio Barnard has finished principal photography.

Ali & Ava is the fourth feature by Clio Barnard (Dark River, The Selfish Giant, The Arbor) starring Adeel Akhtar (Four Lions) and Claire Rushbrook (Secret and Lies)

Produced by long-term partner Tracy O'Riordan of Moonspun Films; the film is financed by BBC Films, BFI and Screen Yorkshire, with Altitude handing world sales and UK/Irish distribution. Principal photography and shooting recently took place on location in Bradford.

AVA (Rushbrook) is a devoted mother and from an Irish-Catholic background in a predominantly white Bradford estate; a teaching assistant who fills her time looking after others and listening to country and folk music, masking an abusive marriage with her ex-husband.

ALI (Akhtar) is a charismatic son, brother, boss and landlord, a music fan and book lover he is devoted to his family and Asian community in Bradford. Still living in an estranged marriage, he hides the estrangement from wider family, and carries on the charade because he is still in love with her.

Both lonely for different reasons, Ava and Ali find each other and sparks fly despite fears about the coupling within their respective family and communities.

Producer O'Riordan says of the film;

'It was wonderful to be back in Bradford shooting Clio’s fourth feature; a love story, based on people we have met whilst making our previous films there. Inspired by Fassbinder’s ‘Fear Eats the Soul’, ALI & AVA is a film about fear and courage, loneliness and belonging, time and love’.

The critical acclaim given and the funding bodies behind this project bodes well for a film that follows in the footsteps of unlikely love pairing - think Harold and Maude, Last Tango in Halifax, Kelly + Victor - hopefully this will have as much to say about love in general as it does about the fraught racial tensions within the Yorkshire borders.

ALI & AVA will be released in cinemas later in 2020.

My thanks to Emfoundation for the review opportunity.

Public Enemies

Originally broadcast in January of this year on BBC One, the three part series which was transmitted on consecutive evenings was created by Tony Marchant, and starred Anna Friel (back from Hollywood) and the underrated Daniel Mays.

The story revolves around two people who are off the rails who are attempting to get back on track.  Probation officer, Paula Radnor (Friel) has an assailant under her supervision but who on release murders a young woman.  Under great scrutiny, Paula is suspended and pleads, 'as much as you want to, you can't hold their hand 24 hours a day.'

Three months later, she is given the case of Eddie Mottram (Mays) who is out 10 years after strangling his girlfriend , 'I am out, but I'm not free'.

The writer Marchant, has a penchant for writing gritty, hard-edged material that does make you realise you have not got it as bad as you might think.

The episodes have a real zip to them, conveying a lot of information without succumbing to needless histrionics. This is thanks in part to the formidable acting display by Mays, who is slowly coming to national prominence after being under the radar for so long.  Friel does what she can with a role that could have been unlikeable, and one written where she should not garner such sympathies, yet Friel is adept at being strong when her character is weak or put upon.

A really gripping and sustainable piece of British drama that is a competent mixture of acting, writing and befitting of the current social climate.

Public Enemies is released by BBC Films on DVD on Monday 30th April, and distributed by Arrow Films