146. Leaving To Remain; movie review

 

LEAVING TO REMAIN

Cert TBA

90 mins

BBFC advice: TBA

Back in 2015, I visited the home of a Roma family in Derby amid controversy about immigrant families in the lead-up to the referendum.

Their home was pristine and they could not have been more welcoming - despite claims that their community were responsible for mess in the street and were involved in anti-social behaviour.

Roma have a long history of having taken the blame for society's ills and consequently faced out-and-out discrimination.

Mira Erdevicki's film takes a very different slant, giving the personal stories of three Roma who have made huge contributions to British life.

Petr Torák, Denisa Gannon and Ondrej Oláh settled in the UK to escape from racial persecution in Central Europe. 

They arrived 20 years ago when Britain was part of the European Union and, although they are still connected via family to Slovakia or the Czech Republic, England is their home.

The British-Roma film crew follow the trio - a lawyer, teacher and police officer, from before the referendum, through the vote on to the Covid pandemic and beyond.

During lockdown, they were given cameras to record their experiences and Covid's impact.

This a deeply honest appraisal of what life is like for Roma in their homeland and in the UK and how that has changed through Covid and post-Brexit.

The contributors are eloquent and enthusiastic about the opportunities in the UK but occasionally fraught over the difficulties faced by them and those in their community.

They paint a fascinating picture but one which needs more meat on the bones.

Reasons to watch: An unusual take on Brexit

Reasons to avoid: Too much like a home movie at times

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 6.5/10

Did you know? Records of Romani people in the UK date back to Scotland in the early 16th century.

The final word. Mira Erdevički: "The pandemic forced us to adopt a new filming concept, using iPhones to record our protagonists' lives with intimate access, which presented an opportunity to reveal the Roma community from the inside. This material quickly became the core of the film, with crew-generated material available for flashbacks to the pre-Covid era."

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