London River

Directed by Rachid Bouchareb. Starring Brenda Blethyn, Sotigui Kouyate, Roschdy Zem Club, IFI, Dublin, 87 min

RACHID BOUCHAREB'S drama of London life in the wake of the 7/7 bombings has been lurking around the schedules for quite some time. Indeed, the director's subsequent film, Outside the Law, premiered at Cannes two whole months ago.

Do not draw too many negative conclusions from that information. London Riveris an engaging, moving, if somewhat schematic, piece of work. The key to its success is a beautifully complementary brace of performances.

Brenda Blethyn (clenched, suspicious, flinty) plays a widowed farmer from the conservative Channel Islands. The late Sotigui Kouyaté (fatalistic, lugubrious, thoughtful) turns up as a forester originally from west Africa.

Following the bombings, having lost touch with their respective children, these two parents come to London harbouring thoughts of catastrophe. As the details of a romance between Kouyaté’s son and Blethyn’s daughter emerge, the suspicious mother gradually allows herself to make friends with the sombre father.

Much of London Riveris dubiously neat: both parents work on the land, for example, and further coincidences abound. Occasionally, the picture tends towards the cosy: the citizens of north London are friendlier than those of Camberwick Green, and Kouyaté's final musical tribute is just a tad toe-curling.

However, enlivened by fine location work in the Finsbury Park and Tottenham regions, London Riverhas significantly more integrity to it than Tom McCarthy's recent, superficially similar The Visitor. The final, painful shot alone justifies the ticket price.