Friday, September 26, 2008
Film Review: Grow Your Own
Summer 2007 saw the release of a landmark film following the stories of three asylum seeker families given allotments in North-West England. Leeds STAR Chair Kathryn Bird went along to check it out…
This extremely funny yet moving British comedy follows the stories of three asylum seeker families given allotments in a dour community in North-West England. The hostility of the locals is seen particularly through the eyes of Kung Sang (beautifully portrayed by Benedict Wong), a Chinese asylum seeker for whom the allotment is a last resort to help him deal with his traumatic past and reconnect with his two children. His touching journey adds warmth to a film sometimes hampered by its overuse of stock characters and neatly tied up storylines.
Indeed, this film could be accused of being too gentle and optimistic in relation to the plight of asylum seekers. What it does achieve – and with a refreshing lack of preaching – is to depict the people behind the asylum statistics as individuals, each with their own traumas, skills and hopes. Comic moments are finely balanced with scenes capturing the anguish and uncertainty which lie at the heart of the experiences of asylum seekers, and the struggles of child asylum seekers are also movingly illustrated.
‘Grow Your Own’ may only quietly highlight the injustices of the asylum system and champion minority rights, but it does so by recognising that humour and warmth are better tools than guilt and uneasiness for drawing a diverse community together.
a href=“http://www.growyourownthemovie.co.uk”>Click here to visit the Grow Your Own website.
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Posted by Russell Brooks on 26/09/2008 at 09:15 AM
