Last Resort

Small is beautiful, or so they say. It is certainly so of Pawel Pawlikowski’s little film about a young Russian’s attempt to enter the UK and be reunited with her fia... more >

Small is beautiful, or so they say. It is certainly so of Pawel Pawlikowski’s little film about a young Russian’s attempt to enter the UK and be reunited with her fiancé. Trailing Tanya’s patient, perplexed, distressed odyssey through Home Office protocol in an out-of-season Kent resort, the film is a miracle of close observation. Indeed, produced by the BBC and owing everything to its details, the film probably works best on TV.

Driven to sell her things, her blood, and herself as cyberporn, Tanya is seen against the backdrop of an immigrant microculture of which most of us are blissfully unaware. An amusement arcade geezer flogs duty free fags and phone cards to the displaced. Kids peer through the glass as women strip for a webcam in a cottage on the front. Refugees queue for the only phone on the prom. Pawlikowski seeks out moments of real poetry as, mired in the greying light and tacky paintwork of its milieu, a group of transient Turks have a sing-song by the shore; Tanya’s son makes friends with the local tomboy; arcade geezer Alfie, alone, gestures in regret when he realizes that he actually likes this dopey Russian woman. By the light of a tiny wood fire, they lie together on the beach. Far from the cliches of a Hollywood ‘issues movie’, or the clunky manipulation of a Ken Loach, Alfie and Tanya’s affection shows, as affection does, in passing gestures. As they part, she waves a hand dismissively, as if the poignancy itself is killing her. Ryszard Lenczewski shot Last Resort in a jittery hand-held fashion, which seems precisely suited to catch the unscripted moment, the limbo of these lives.

British films nowadays come in two types: the polished, assiduously hyped, triumph-over-adversity ‘Britfilm’ – Brassed Off, The Full Monty, Billy Elliot - and the quiet realism of everyday victory and defeat to be found in Mike Leigh and Shane Meadows. Modest, edgy, honest, Last Resort clearly deserves admission to the latter tradition. It certainly deserves admission to the video collections of the UK.
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DVD Extras

• Theatrical trailer
• Director's filmography.

Film Details

Cast

Dina Korzun, Paddy Considine, Artiom Strelnikov

Technical Details