Preceded by the society AGM.

This is a delightful and quintessentially British film, with the sort of quirkiness you get in movies like Sixty Six and Wondrous Oblivion. Its background is the very English passion for gardening and allotments in particular. It does, however, have a contemporary twist in that writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce has taken as his inspiration a real life project in Liverpool to assist traumatised asylum seekers by giving them an allotment plot to grow their own food and through that regain their hold on life. The interaction in the film between the conservatism of the English working man taking traditional refuge from the cares of life and family in his allotment and the ethnically mixed newcomers is stimulating and fun.

While the writer and director are making a distinct political statement through the story, they do it through the creation of well drawn and empathetic human beings. Jackson as retired policeman Big John, leader of the allotment committee, epitomises the British suspicion of outsiders, as he tries to oust the newcomers through manipulation of the allotment's constitution, but he is no villain, just a misguided, narrow minded pedant, who we know will get his come uppance. His domination of his son Little John (Marsan) is shaken when John falls for Miriam (Diveen Henry), a refugee from Zimbabwe, who still hangs on to the hope that her missing husband will find her again, while the British virtues of both tolerance and rebellion against authority are epitomised in the outwardly grumpy but kindly Kenny (Williams), whose fierce independence is hiding a sad secret. Among the newcomers British Chinese actor Benedict Wong is outstanding as Kung Sang, a refuge e rendered mute through the tragic experiences of his escape to Britain, while playing his young daughter who takes on responsibility beyond her years in caring for her father is a delightful child called Sophie Lee. Ali (Omid Djalili), a doctor in his native Iran, becomes unofficial medical and emotional adviser to the community, while he awaits the result of his asylum application and the scene where he and his wife are brutally arrested by the immigration authorities is heartbreaking.

Though it has its serious undertow, this is primarily a genial comedy of working class tradition reluctantly bending to the new. Even the modern world of big business, represented by a smarty pants young woman, who with Big John's collaboration is after the part of the allotment allocated to the newcomers, has its human side in terms of her cowed male assistant who eventually makes a stand. Grow Your Own manages to be a genuinely heartwarming film, which avoids sentimentality and makes its point though good storytelling rather than polemic.

Carol Allen
Close Up Film