London River (2011)

90% of critics liked it
(31 reviews)
64% of users liked it
(9,740 ratings)

London 2005--It's the story of Ousmane and Mrs Sommers, both humble people living ordinary lives, he in France, she in the Channel Islands. He has a son - she has a daughter - they both are students in London. On July 7th 2005, without any news of their dear children, they decide to start a journey… More London 2005--It's the story of Ousmane and Mrs Sommers, both humble people living ordinary lives, he in France, she in the Channel Islands. He has a son - she has a daughter - they both are students in London. On July 7th 2005, without any news of their dear children, they decide to start a journey together in search of the two teenagers. And although they come from different religious backgrounds - Ousmane is Muslim and Mrs Sommers' Christian - they will share the same hope in finding their children alive. Putting aside their cultural differences, they will give each other the strength to continue the search and maintain the faith. -- (C) Official Site

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 27 min.
Directed By: Rachid Bouchareb
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Dec 7, 2011 Limited
On DVD: Mar 5, 2012
Studio: Cinema Libre

Critic Reviews

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
The film is a matter of Brenda Blethyn's performance vs. Sotigui Kouyate's presence.
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic
It would be nice to say that Bouchareb, who also wrote and directed "Days of Glory" and "Outside the Law," succeeds. He does not entirely. But he doesn't fail, either.
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
Blethyn and Kouyaté inhabit and expand the film's earnestly instructive intentions, leaving us with a deeply-felt experience rather than a naively-sketched lesson.
V.A. Musetto, New York Post
"London River'' features on-target acting by its two leads, but they receive scant support from the wobbly plot.
Stephen Holden, New York Times
Demonstrates how great acting can infuse a banal, politically correct drama with dollops of emotional truth.
Michelle Orange, Village Voice
Bouchareb brings a measured hand to this intimate, occasionally overdetermined sketch of the aloneness at the center of our global confluence.
Mark R. Leeper, Mark Leeper's Reviews
Though the arc of the story is fairly predictable, Brenda Blethyn and Sotigui Kouyate bring humanity to their roles.
Mike Scott, Times-Picayune
There isn't a whole lot of nuance in writer-director Rachid Bouchareb's unapologetically political story. But Blethyn's performance ultimately draws viewers in.
Fr. Chris Carpenter, Movie Dearest
Powerful. Director Rachid Bouchareb draws excellent, haunting performances from Blethyn and Kouyate. Ultimately moving and cautionary, "London River" shouldn't be missed.
Louis Proyect, rec.arts.movies.reviews
Not surprisingly, the choice of the actress who played lead female character in Mike Leigh's "Secrets and Lies" betrays an affinity for Leigh in more than just the casting--and there's nothing wrong with that.
Nora Lee Mandel, Film-Forward.com
[T]wo strangers surprisingly find that horror makes the globalization of terror very personal [with] Blethyn's convincing performance [as] a desperate mother.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
An engaging morality play about the quest of an English woman and an African Muslim to find their children after the 2005 terrorist attack in London.
Clay Cane, BET.com
Bouchareb's greatest accomplishment is successfully tackling class, grief and Islamophobia.
David Fear, Time Out New York
There's such a graceful sense of restraint in how this real-life tragedy is treated, one that filters any potential for ripped-from-yesterday's-headlines sensationalism through a respectful requiem of loss and grief.
Andrew Schenker, Slant Magazine
Although the film occasionally cuts away to contextualized clips from news reports, it keeps its focus small-scale, filtering the world historical through the intimately personal.
Liz Braun, Jam! Movies
The film's message about these worried individuals and the larger family of all humanity is a bit obvious at times, but the performances keep you watching.
Enrique Buchichio, Uruguay Total
Un retrato humano, sobrio y sensible, que reflexiona sobre los prejuicios y la tolerancia racial, cultural y religiosa en el contexto de los atentados terroristas de Londres. Estupenda labor de sus dos protagonistas.
Alistair Harkness, Scotsman
This gentle melodrama uses the July 2005 terrorist bombings in London as a jumping off point for a tender tale of clashing cultures united in grief.

Read all 18 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Daisy M

London River the story about a mother whose daughter went missing after the London attacks in 2005. The movie followed her efforts to find out what happened to her and her struggle to accept reality. She met an old man who same as her were looking for his son. The story started very… More
London River the story about a mother whose daughter went missing after the London attacks in 2005. The movie followed her efforts to find out what happened to her and her struggle to accept reality. She met an old man who same as her were looking for his son. The story started very talkative in the beginning but then it turned into a heart breaking story as you felt sorry for these parents what they went through.She was a British, living on the island Guernsey, widow, and he was black, came from Africa, a Muslim and worked in France. Everything separated them,religion, language, race and appearance. But they team up together because of fate of their children, and they went together through the painful stages of fear, hope, and desperation.