The honest and honest Mrs. Losomers lives on Guernsey Island, and the African worker Haussmann lives in France. Two people who have nothing to do with each other meet because of a terrorist attack.
On July 7, 2005, when terrorists attacked London's Victoria Railway Station, Mrs. Lowsomers and Osman each went to London to start looking for their children.
Uthman had a son named Ali, but he left him when he was six years old, and he has never seen him since. Mrs. Lowsomers had a daughter who disappeared from her mother's life after an argument with her mother. For this reason, Lowsomers also embarked on a long journey to find her family.
In the bustling British city of London, Losomers and Osman have no time to take care of the bustling and lively here. They only worry about their children, where they are, whether they are injured, and what happened to them. They don't seem to know much about their own children, or even a little unfamiliar.
After many setbacks, Mrs. Losomers finally learned what had happened to her daughter, who was taking Arabic lessons and living in public with a black youth named Ali. After the bombing, the London police raised the security alert level, and conducted strict investigations on Muslim immigrants in particular. Mrs. Solomos's daughter was suspected by the police for learning Arabic, and Ali was also on the suspect list because of her religion.
There are many movies about terrorist attacks, and this "London River" does not directly show the scenes of terrorist attacks, but tells the sad story of two families and two parents with the background of terrorist attacks.
On the morning of July 7, young radical terrorists blew up three subway lines and a double-decker bus with four bombs, killing 56 people and injuring more than 700. The scene was quite tragic.
After learning of this incident, Mrs. Lowsomers was torn between hope and despair. As a mother, she found that she did not understand her daughter, and it was only after she embarked on this path to find her family that she began to understand her daughter's life. Before coming to her daughter's apartment, she repeatedly confirmed the address with the driver. She tried to learn about her daughter's usual life, habits and preferences from her daughter's teacher.
Othman, a complete outsider, a different race, different skin color, different religion makes him out of tune with the city. Although he has always lived in France, France has not given him a sense of belonging, and he will always be a sad foreigner. When he started looking for his son, he realized that he knew nothing about his son.
The director of the film, Ratched Pochara, was born in a North African immigrant family in Paris, France in 1959. His special identity and growing environment made him have a special complex for the immigrant group in France. When he became a director, his works naturally focused on the living conditions of immigrant groups in France.
Films such as "Son of Man" in 1997, "In Paradise" in 1998, and "Little Senegal" in 2001 are all such themes. These works laid the foundation for Rachid Pochara's shooting direction and won him many honors. Although "London River" is a film set in the background of terrorist attacks, the director's focus is still on the identity of immigrants through a series of incidents and investigations.
Identity is the link between people's subjective experience of the world and the cultural and historical settings that constitute this subjectivity, and it is a symbol of a group or individual defining its own cultural identity. Mrs. Losomers' daughter, as a foreigner, came to London and couldn't wait to integrate into the local culture. After she met Ali, she found a place to belong through Ali, so by learning Arabic, she could better understand Ali's religious beliefs and language culture.
Because of the multiplicity of immigrant cultural identities, it is easy to be mentally confused in a new environment. When they are not sure of their own identity, they will be involved in two different cultures, however, on a spiritual level, they cannot convince themselves to belong to one of them, so confusion arises.
As Mrs. Lowsomers and Osman searched for the child together, they gradually began to understand their child through communication and understanding with each other. The terror attack was a disaster for many families, but for Mrs Lowsomers and Osman it was a fresh start.
We also need to note that before the terrorist attack, Mrs. Losomers' daughter was learning Arabic, and the religion of Uthman's son Ali was nothing special, but after this attack, let the two into a predicament. This is actually a reflection of director Ratched Pochara on immigration status.
To a certain extent, this film about the terrorist attack is actually expressing the identity dilemma of immigrants and thinking about immigrants and their cultural identities on the margins.
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