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[ejwrank]

We saw this yesterday at the Curzon Renoir after my daughter won tickets in a competition. There were only about 12 of us at the afternoon showing. Our tickets were free but it was a regular showing not a preview.

A Kurdish teen, a boy of 17, has managed after 3 months to get himself to France but is desperate to get to London to see his girlfriend. He decides the only way he can get to England is to swim, so he starts training at the swimming pool and is befriended by a swim coach. Farfetched? Yes, but I liked the film. It is often melodramatic and the plot is pretty outrageous (how does an average swimmer train to swim the Channel?). But the behaviour of the police is quite amazing. Do the French police actually interrogate and arrest people who try to help 'illegals'? We're not talking of helping people to escape but just giving them food or shelter -- the film shows the police closing down the soup kitchen and trying to intimidate volunteers who are working there. I'd be interested to know if this really happens.

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The acting was good and the film was worthy. Thanks to Marialionza for posting the competition.