Film: Last Resort
Release date: 30th July 2001
Certificate: 15
Running time: 75 mins
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
Starring: Dina Korzun, Artyom Strelnikov, Paddy Considine, Steve Perry, Perry Benson
Genre: Drama/Romance
Studio: Artificial Eye
Format: DVD
Country: UK
English and Russian-language film.
After moving to the UK from his native Poland at the age of 14, Pawel Pawlikowski knows what it feels like to be an outsider. It is this feeling of bewildering alienation that he examines in his BAFTA award-winning film Last Resort.
Tanya (Dina Korzum) has travelled to the UK from Russia with her young son, Artiom (Artyom Strlnikov), convinced that her fiancé, Mark, will be there to meet her at the airport. He is nowhere to be found. Confused and alone, she informs the authorities that she is a refugee seeking political asylum.
They are promptly taken to Stonehaven, a desolate seaside town that serves as a “holding area” for all those who are seeking political asylum. Life for Tanya looks increasingly bleak.
When it becomes clear that Mark will not be coming to save her, she decides to halt her application for asylum and travel to London, only to be informed that this will take between three and six months, during which time she must remain in Stonehaven. However, it’s not long before she meets Alfie (Paddy Considine), a charismatic arcade worker with a violent past, who is just as much of an outsider within this hostile wasteland as Tanya…
Last Resort is an expertly crafted film that explores the relationship between a mother and son within the wider context of the plight faced by asylum seekers in contemporary Britain. As a transnational filmmaker, Pawlikowski perfectly captures the sense of the isolation and fear that is felt by those who are considered to be ‘outsiders’ within society. The opening scene of the film shows Tanya travelling backwards in an airport carrier through a darkened tunnel, trapped within a tightly framed mise-en-scène within. This sense of confinement is evident throughout the film as the characters are repeatedly filmed through the prison-like barbed wire and CCTV cameras that surround their new ‘home’.
However, despite the misery of Tanya and Artiom’s situation, Pawlikowski has a unique ability to find elements of beauty in places and scenarios in a way that is completely unexpected, something which undoubtedly arose from his previous career as a documentary maker. Nowhere is this more apparent than when Tanya, Artiom and Alfie go for a walk along the beach. The usually dour grey skies of Stonehaven (a thinly veiled Margate) are suddenly transformed by Pawlikowski’s camera so that they become almost magical. Similarly, a potentially heavy script is elevated by the small touches of irony that are sprinkled throughout the film. The dilapidated arcade where Alfie works, for little money and even less thanks, proudly boasts the sign “Welcome to Dreamland,” and whilst Stonehaven is many things, a dreamland it is not. Likewise, the wallpaper that adorns the walls of Tanya’s claustrophobic flat evokes images of a tropical paradise, yet it is ripped and peeling off the damp-ridden walls.
Pawlikowski obviously has an eye for detail. This also reflected in his highly likeable and three-dimensional characters. Paddy Considine, a favourite of both Pawlikowski and Shane Meadows, gives an electrifying performance as Alfie. He is charming and friendly and acts as a much-needed father figure for Artiom. However, it is apparent that he also has a violent past, which is simmering under the surface, threatening to explode at any moment.
Arguably the best performance comes from Artyom Strelnikov as Artiom. Without his father present, he simultaneously displays both childlike qualities and the characteristics of a father figure. At 12 years old, he is the pragmatic antidote to his mother’s naive romanticism: “You do realise their pimps, don’t you?” he asks his unsuspecting mother when she is approached by two strange men. If Tanya represents the outsider, then Artiom is the voice of Pawlikowski; not quite at home in his surroundings but with enough knowledge and understanding to see the world as it really is.
Pawlikowski has always been critical of British social realist films, accusing them of “drowning in sociology.” This is certainly not a criticism that can be levelled at Last Resort. Whilst the film does offer a sympathetic representation of the outsider, it also achieves a great deal more. It is a brilliantly photographed and acted film that examines the relationship between a mother and a son, and proves that there are moments of beauty in every situation, even if these moments are fleeting. SH
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