Aisha
Letitia Wright plays “Aisha,” a role that involves a young Nigerian woman on the run in Ireland who can’t seem to overcome one bureaucratic hurdle after another.
This is not a melodramatic film, even though it may be too low-key for its own good sometimes; Berry grounds her story in the daily struggles and intermittent joys of life as an immigrant. The silliness of the relentless trials she faces is infuriating: An administrator at the center where she lives won’t give her a piece of mail she needs, so she misses her bus to her part-time job at a hair salon where the owner chews her out for being late.
It’s like that every day. She’s just having no luck. Some of these roadblocks are racist; some are just plain sadistic. As has been said often in recent years about treatment of immigrants to America, the cruelty is the point.
But still: Aisha soldiers on. Wright, so funny and fierce in the “Black Panther” movies, taps into that same spirit here by showing her character’s isolation and anguish through physical restraint and measured words; we get only occasional glimpses of what she endured back home through meetings with her immigration lawyer (Loran Cranitch), but understandably, she doesn’t want to go there again right now or ever.
We do see early signs of how easily Aisha connects with people as an aspiring beautician putting makeup on the other women in the group home and making them smile by making them feel pretty for an afternoon. And Berry gets us into the rhythms of Aisha’s day in day out existence its highs and lows with long takes and unobtrusive camerawork inspired by documentaries. A Muslim woman, Aisha wakes up before dawn every morning to pray; those quiet moments alone seem to sustain her.
This fly on the wall approach also becomes crucial once she strikes up an improbable friendship with Conor (Josh O’Connor), a new overnight security guard at the center who becomes an unlikely source of kindness in her life. Berry lets us sit with them in silence as they share an unspoken understanding over midnight meals in the industrial kitchen; their small talk on the bus eventually turns into good-natured teasing and then even laughter.
O’Connor, who’s so hot right now between “Challengers” and “La Chimera,” shows yet another side of his talent here. Gone is the cockiness of those roles; with his big, goofy smile, Conor exudes a hangdog sweetness and an earnestness to make up for past mistakes. O’Connor is such an easygoing, likable presence that you wish there were more to Conor than what we’re given; he almost seems too good to be true in terms of how he shows up for Aisha no matter what time of day it is or where she’s living once the system forces her to move again. But whether they can have any kind of lasting relationship provides another source of smoldering tension atop the central question of whether Aisha will be allowed to stay.
As the movie goes on, Berry shows more and more how alone she is by shooting her alone at a bus stop or on the sidewalk in front of a small-town supermarket.
For Aisha and for many people, as “Aisha” persuasively makes clear there are no fast solutions. The movie’s sudden but true ending, which is surely unsatisfying to most viewers, appears to say this.
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