Leave to Remain
2021 · 11m · UK
Directed by Remy Bazerque
Tones: darkly comic, humorous, provocative
A young Iranian father living in the UK is mistakenly threatened with deportation when a routine visit to the visa and immigration services office spirals into chaos. A political comedy skewering the Home Office's 'hostile environment' policy.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Most people see immigration policy as a serious, untouchable subject—Bazerque weaponizes it as pure farce, letting the absurdity of the system become the joke without punching down, which is the move everyone else is too reverent to attempt.
There's a precision to how Bazerque situates this within the tradition of Ealing comedy and contemporary political satire, using restraint in the visual language to amplify the bureaucratic horror rather than relying on broad strokes.
The decision to play the protagonist's mounting panic straight while the bureaucratic world around him descends into illogic—never winking at the audience—is what makes the comedy land; it's a tonal high-wire that a smaller film rarely pulls off without a wasted gesture.
Reviews
Funny, poignant and potent — an explosive short that captures the miserable bureaucratic life faced by migrants in the UK.
I tend to use my work to exorcise personal, intense emotions. It's an inside out process for me.
Festivals
- BFI London Film Festival 2021
- Moscow Shorts 2021, Best Narrative Short Film
- Dublin International Short Film and Music Festival 2021, Best Comedy Nominee
- Flickerfest 2021
- Oslo Film Festival 2021
- Berlin British Shorts Film Festival 2022
- Manchester Film Festival 2022
- Cleveland International Film Festival 2022
- Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2022
- Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2022