Film Review — Ali & Ava
An unusual, uplifting romance, buoyed by great lead performances
Superb performances from Claire Rushbrook and Adeel Akhtar elevate this tender, uplifting romance from writer/director Clio Barnard. Set in multicultural Bradford, the film is also an inherent celebration of that community, and of how music can bring people together. It sounds trite on paper, but the film is warm, heartfelt, and surprising.
Akhtar plays Ali; a kindly, extrovert, energetic, young-at-heart landlord. Lonely in the wake of a mutually agreed separation from his wife (though they still live in the same home, in separate bedrooms), Ali finds solace in his dance music, having once harboured dreams of becoming a DJ. He meets Ava (Rushbrook), a classroom assistant, after taking the daughter of one of his tenants to school (in a lovely early scene, where he’s seen persuading her to go by carrying her on his shoulders). Ali gives Ava a lift home, and the two discuss their mutual love of music. Ava is into country and folk, which Ali doesn’t care for, but they nonetheless hit it off. This leads to a rather wonderful moment where they dance together, listening to their own tracks (a pop/dance track on Ali’s headphones, a country song on Ava’s).
Scenes like these are what elevate Barnard’s film above the ordinary. As a director, she weaves in…
