Limbo (2023)

Direction: Ivan Sen
Country: Australia 

Limbo is a haunting neo-noir slow burner written, directed, edited, co-produced, photographed, and scored by the multifaceted Ivan Sen (Mystery Road, 2013; Goldstone, 2016). The film offers a captivating re-examination of an unsolved murder case that victimized a young Aboriginal woman two decades ago. Travis Hurley (Simon Baker), a benumbed cop with a violent past and a heavy drug addiction, arrives in a small, barren mining town in outback Australia to investigate deeper. He contacts the victim’s depressed family members - half-siblings Charlie Hayes (Rob Collins) and Emma (Natasha Wanganeen) - as well as Joseph (Nicholas Hope), the brother of the main suspect at the time. All of them seem to know more than what they say.

Building up slowly but with a hypnotic spell, the film looks like a canvas painted in monochrome style - the unique arid landscape and compelling black-and-white photography make a wonderful match. It exposes not only the current existential emptiness but also the lack of opportunities and injustices endured by the indigenous Australians. 

Carrying all the ingredients of a solid film noir, Limbo has a startlingly unusual climax, shrouded in thick mystery and a sulfurous tone that, at the end, suddenly veers to bittersweet. Despite the shattering suggestions, the film ends on an optimistic note that is both quite surprising and welcoming. With no sensational scenes or thrills, Limbo penetrates our minds with a piercing lethargy.

Limbo (2021)

Direction: Ben Sharrock
Country: UK

Limbo is a beautiful comedy drama. Bitter and tender by turns, it tells the story of Syrian refugee and oud player Omar Youssef (Amir El-Masry), who gets indefinitely stranded on a remote island in Scotland, patiently waiting for his application for asylum to be approved. Meanwhile, and because he is not allowed to work, he deals with anxiety and guilt not just for having borrowed money from his parents but also for having left Syria without saying goodbye to his brother, Nabil (Kais Nashif), who chose to fight. 

Unmotivated to play his instrument, Omar enters in a fragile emotional state that, on the one hand, is aggravated by the xenophobic observations of some locals, and, on the other, is attenuated by his Afghan friend, Farhad (Vikash Bhai), one of the few who remain optimistic and encouraging.

British writer/director Ben Sharrock borrows some humorous traits from Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki (immediately detectable in the first scene), who is the European summit in the thorny issue of immigration (Le Havre, 2011; The Other Side of Hope, 2017). Still, he infuses his own vision by giving a refreshing take on the topic and molding the film to become poignant but unsentimental, with an urgent humanist side.

As an affecting and intimate declaration of faith in human values, the picture works its way quietly and steadily into our emotions. Every line and frame have something of interest and it’s nearly impossible not to care for these characters as we witness their pain, compassion and hope. Limbo is difficult to forget.