Ali & Ava Review

Ali & Ava is the third feature film by Clio Barnard. This time she looks at a new relationship between two people who have troubled pasts.

Ali (Adeel Akhtar) is a landlord and former DJ who is separated from his wife. However, they still live together so they can keep up appearances for Ali’s family. Ava (Claire Rushbrook) is a teaching assistant who lives in a rough area of Bradford. The pair meet when Ali offers to give Ava a lift home and the pair discover they have a spark. Yet their potential relationship faces the obstacle of their disapproving families.

Barnard comes from a Kitchen Sink Realist traditional of filmmaking. She started her career as a documentarian before moving into narrative cinema and her work has been compared to Ken Loach, one of the kings of the genre. Barnard wanted to make her third feature a sweet and genuine film about two lost souls finding each other whilst also showing the lives of working-class people.

Where Ali & Ava succeeds the most was with its acting. Akhtar and Rushbrook are talented actors and they gave excellent performances. Their interactions and dialogue were natural and Barnard’s direction made it seem like the camera was just following real people. Many of the cast members were credited for having a role in character development, so it’s likely there was a lot of improvisation, or Barnard altered the screenplay to accommodate the actors.

Akhtar was an actor I discovered in the BBC/PBS version of Les Misérables where he played one of the most despicable characters in that show. It made for a nice change to see him play a likeable, charming character and it shows how much range Akhtar has. Rushbrook’s Ava was shown to be a good-natured woman with a particular affinity with young children and able to joke with the people around her. Ava had a powerful moment when she told Ali about the abuse her family suffered from her ex-partner.

Whilst Ali & Ava had a gritty look the film had many lighter moments. One of the first scenes in the film was Ava, her son, Callum (Shaun Thomas), and her granddaughter, Venice (Macy Shackleton) watching a Bollywood aerobics show and they were copying the actions on the screen. There was a sense of believability during this scene when Venice forgot her school bag and Callum refuses to go after her because he was in a state of undress. Ali and Ava had some fun conversations as they talk about music, their backgrounds, and just had chemistry together. There were witty moments involving those two.

Ali & Ava is a drama, so it explores some serious themes about domestic abuse, family relationships, and prejudice. All three were tied together, particularly with Ava’s story. Callum objected to Ali’s relationship with extreme aggression. Callum’s father’s presence was still felt even though he was dead. Callum saw Ava’s relationship as a betrayal to his dad even though his parents were separated. Callum’s father was a member of the far-right and the film left it ambiguous on whether Callum took a dislike to Ali because of his race.

Prejudice was an issue present in both Ali and Ava’s families. Ava’s daughter was half-Indian and she made a comment that Pakistani men have a different attitude about relationships. Ava mentions her father disowned her because he was an Irish who hated the British, so didn’t like it when Ava was with an Englishman. Ali’s family also had prejudice because they were judgemental about his friendship with a white woman and one of them made a comment about gypsies and the trouble they cause.

Ali & Ava was a film that had a loose narrative. It was simply following two people as their relationship develops and grows. Because of this Ali & Ava felt like a short film that was stretched out to be a feature film. Barnard tried to add to the film by having the subplot involving Callum’s prejudice against Ali, but at times the film was padding itself out so it could justify its length. An example of this padding was when Ava visited a friend who suffered from bipolar disorder and Ava had to sort her out.

Ali & Ava was a great showcase for its cast and Barnard was able to deliver a film that felt naturalistic. However, even at 95 minutes it felt stretched.