Refugee Week: “Limbo”
Refugee Week is an opportunity for Bridport Refugee Support Campaign to explore with Bridport the difficulties experienced by refugees from all over the world. The theme for Refugee week 2022 is “Healing” through creativity and conversations; it will be a celebration of community, mutual care, and the human ability to start again. BRSC and Bridport Film Society will be co-hosting the showing of the award-winning film, Limbo, on Wednesday 22 June at Bridport Arts Centre at 7.00pm. There will be a short discussion about the refugee experience after the film, chaired by Chris Pike, who will also explore how refugees have been represented on film.
Limbo is a 2020 British comedy-drama film, centering on four asylum seekers who are sent to a remote island in Scotland while awaiting the processing of their refugee claims. Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian describes it as “witty, poignant, marvellously composed and shot… the emotional centre of the film is Omar, and El-Masry’s tremendous performance – particularly in the heart-rending conversations he has with his mother over the phone, demanding detailed recipes in a doomed attempt to eat in exactly the way he ate back home. This is superlative film making from the director Ben Sharrock.”
Bridport Refugee Support Campaign will have a stall on Bucky Doo on Saturday 25 June with musicians, creative activities, and information about international refugee issues. The refugee week’s theme, healing, means recovering from a painful experience or situation, so that we can continue to live. No-one understands this better than those who have lost their homes and had to build new lives from scratch. We have much to learn from refugees about holding onto hope when going on seems impossible – as well as about how art, creativity and community can help us to heal. Those going through the asylum system also know that healing is an ongoing process, made harder by poverty, housing difficulties and the threat of being detained or deported. Asking for change, so that refugees can truly feel safe, is an act of care.
Tickets for the film will cost £5.00 and are available from the Bridport Arts Centre website or the Tourist Information Centre. For more information about Refugee Week visit bridportrefugee.org.uk.