London River | Film review

Elisabeth (Brenda Blethyn) is a middle-aged mother living on an island in the English Channel; Ousmane (the late Sotigui Kouyaté) is an African immigrant who resides in France. Both end up traveling to London to find their respective missing children in the aftermath of the July 7, 2005, terrorist attacks, checking every hospital ward and following every lead. They soon find out their searches are intertwined. It’s a credit to both the actors and Franco-Algerian filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb (Days of Glory) that the film never dives headfirst into mawkishness. There’s a graceful sense of restraint in how real-life tragedy is treated, filtering any potential for ripped-from-yesterday’s-headlines sensationalism through a respectful requiem of loss and grief.