The locals may know every inch of this place, but that only makes living in it more disconcerting for Omar (the quiet, watchful Amir El-Masry) and his three temporary house buddies.
This is the first feature ever to be shot on North and South Uist, and it looks like nothing else: a study in roads winding towards who knows where, through a samey terrain of flat green moorland, which feels wintry to the bone even before it’s frosted by inevitable blizzards. "And what better way to use comedy? Because we draw the audience in closer rather than try to make them feel guilty."Īnd for those of you who are wondering, writer-director Sharrock said yes, the pay phone box in "Limbo" is a tribute to the phone box in another popular Scottish film "Local Hero.All the minor characters in Ben Sharrock’s Limbo are native to the Outer Hebrides. "Especially to an audience that might be foreign to this subject matter," he said. El-Masri said films like this are essential. "Limbo" is very funny, but also carries a great weight of sadness. "So you do think, 'Oh gosh, how insignificant you are on this planet.' There were more sheep than people on that island as well." "West onwards, there was nothing till America," he laughed. El-Masri remembers having to change costumes on the side of the road, looking out to the Atlantic. It boasts beautiful country, the potential for diabolical weather and few amenities. They shot the film on Uist, one of the Outer Hebrides. "And really, it became this point where it's just a film about people." "This idea that I wanted to make a film about the refugee crisis without making a refugee film," he said. In time he came up with his own approach. And both of these things kind of felt very dehumanizing and looking at refugees as just numbers and statistics." "I was really struck by the representation of refugees," he said "Where we had the demonizing on one side, and the pitying of refugees on the other side. He later worked in refugee camps in Algeria. As media coverage of the refugee crisis in Europe mounted, he wrestled with what he saw. He's a Scot who studied Arabic at university and worked in Syria the year before the civil war broke out.
The idea for “Limbo” gestated in Sharrock's mind for a decade. "Thirty-two months and five days," he replied. "How long have you been waiting?" he asks Farhad, an Afghan he has befriended.
"If you are calling about an asylum claim, please hang up" a recorded message tells Omar. He occasionally trudges back to that pay phone to try to find news. Omar is known for his playing, but now one of his hands is wrapped in a bright pink cast after an accident. He carries his grandfather's oud, the Arab stringed instrument. But he can't work legally.Īnd he's a musician. He is worried about his family, especially his brother who volunteered to fight in the Syrian civil war. Omar feels lost, powerless, experiencing the “limbo” of the movie's title government has sent them to a Scottish island to wait while their asylum claims are processed. In the film, Omar is one of a large group of refugees - all men - from Africa, the Middle East and beyond. "But with this, Ben puts Omar into the forefront of the narrative. "In other depictions I have seen in the past, you'll have a Western character who shows them a better way of life, or saves them from their plight," he said. Initially El-Masry was reluctant to consider a story about refugees. Then one day, his agent passed along the script for "Limbo," written by director Ben Sharrock. He's now built an English language career, including a role as an imperial commander in "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker." Which was tricky," said Amir El-Masry, who plays Omar.īorn in Cairo, but raised in London, El-Masry became a film star in Egypt. He went there because he was tired of being offered what he saw as stereotypical roles. "I was playing it straight the whole time, and trying to play against the comedy, as such. Omar maintains a hangdog expression though it all.
When the Sikh who runs the local minimart asks, "Are you Muslim?" Omar nods yes. "He's nae a tourist Margaret," states another. "You one o' they refugees?" asks one man. The locals have comments and questions, too. "Your father wants to know if it's like Guantanamo," she asks.
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