The Flood (U)
Directed by Anthony Woodley

TO COINCIDE with World Refugee Week comes this powerful political drama which attempts to challenge perceptions of the current so-called refugee crisis and those seeking safe refuge in Britain.

At a time when the lines between refugees and terrorists are being blurred by politicians, the film, set in France and Britain, is told from the point of view of a British immigration officer and an asylum-seeker.

Lena Headey, also one of the film’s executive producers, plays the hardened and jaded immigration officer Wendy whose clinical detachment allows her to “get the job done.”

She is ordered to fast-track the application of high-profile asylum-seeker Haile (Ivanno Jeremiah) to appease the press and politicos.

As her boss, played superbly by Iain Glen, tells her: “This is the easiest rejection of the week … He attacked a police officer. He is clearly an economic migrant with no dependents in the UK.”

He soon notices that his top officer seems off her game. Unbeknown to him, her personal life is a mess — she has a drink problem brought on by an acrimonious divorce and no access to her young daughter.

Her cleverly disguised, vodka-filled water bottle is a clear indication of her chaotic personal life though it doesn’t appear to interfere with her cold and impersonal grilling of Haile, during which flashbacks reveal his perilous 5,000km journey from Eritrea to The Jungle in Calais and on to Britain.

That’s the truth of his story, and Headey gives a magnificent and nuanced performance as the hard-nosed yet troubled official whose humanity starts to break through, while Jeremiah is hugely impressive as a complex and earnest man wrongly demonised by the system.

Based on actual accounts culled from interviews with ex-Home Office officials, the film attempts to honestly capture, without any cinematic gimmicks, the reality of what’s happening at our borders.

It’s a thought-provoking drama which does not make easing viewing. But it’s one that everyone should see.