Black Easter is a very relevant movie of today. It starts out like quite a few cop movies. A "loose-canon" cop is called out of suspension to solve the murder of an illegal immigrant. But that is where this movie moves off from the norm. The story revolves around the European Union, specifically Germany. The European Union countries are wealthy and wonderful places to live, while the Eastern European countries are economically depressed. In order to save their families many citizens of the eastern countries jump the border in order for a better life. Refugee camps are created on the Germany Polish border as these refugees are caught. Detective Alex Fisher(Trevor Eve) is brought off suspension to find the murderer of the woman and this takes him into the refugee camp. There he meets a woman, Anna(Amanda Ooms), who is trying to make the refugee's life easier. She is also part of an underground movement, that gets refugees out of the camp to a better area, but it's not much better. It is also monitored by the police and little food is dropped to help. As Fisher and his partner look through a building, an illegal makes a run for it. They can't catch her, but when Fisher returns home he finds her in his trunk. He feeds her, gives her food and sets her back on the road. Throughout this, he's terrified, because he could be imprisoned. Fisher begins to find out more about the refugee problem and realizes that the local eastern police are in league with the Russian Mafia and that the dead woman was killed because of her knowledge about the connection. The illegal woman that he had helped and left on the side of the road returns to his home and with the help of his partner, he gets the woman to the border check point. When his car is searched, the woman is missing. She has been taken and killed. He begins to investigate this, but gets stuck behind the border in the refugee camp. His police force is now looking for him, thinking he killed the second woman. He meets up with Anna and together, with the son of the second woman and an old man they join a group of refugees trying to cross the border into Germany.
One of the other reviewers thought this movie was a bit confusing, but I live in Southern California and it was perfectly obvious to me what this movie was about; Illegal Immigration. Fisher started out with the perspective that alot of us have. The illegals come to the US and "steal" jobs from hardworking Americans. This isn't true, of course, because the illegals tend to take the jobs that most American's don't want, due to the working conditions or wages. Fisher learns this in his trek back to Germany. That the immigration problem is more complicated than it appears and that many criminals take advantage of the refugee's desperation. As drivers in Southern California get closer and closer to San Ysidro on the Mexican border we start to see yellow signs of the sillhouettes of a man, woman and child darting across the freeway. It works perfectly with the ending of this movie.
The movie was poignant and the actors were a great ensemble. Trevor Eve and Amanda Ooms led the way with their wonderfully emotional performances. They were backed up by some wonderful actors as well, Bruce Meyers, Peter Stormare, John Shrapnel and Shaun Dingwall are on the top of the list.
This movie, like many on the BBC or ITV have not been released to the public at large, except for several copies at the time of the release of the film. This is a case of sharing the wealth. I got mind from a young woman on ebay who had cleaned out her closet and sold it to me in her "yard sale".
I know I'm whining again, but I wish the BBC and ITV would understand how starved Americans(me) are for quality drama, that we'd sort through someone's yard sale to find it. There is a definite market out there for the products. This movie is a keeper and I will watch it until it collapses and hope I can find another.
One of the other reviewers thought this movie was a bit confusing, but I live in Southern California and it was perfectly obvious to me what this movie was about; Illegal Immigration. Fisher started out with the perspective that alot of us have. The illegals come to the US and "steal" jobs from hardworking Americans. This isn't true, of course, because the illegals tend to take the jobs that most American's don't want, due to the working conditions or wages. Fisher learns this in his trek back to Germany. That the immigration problem is more complicated than it appears and that many criminals take advantage of the refugee's desperation. As drivers in Southern California get closer and closer to San Ysidro on the Mexican border we start to see yellow signs of the sillhouettes of a man, woman and child darting across the freeway. It works perfectly with the ending of this movie.
The movie was poignant and the actors were a great ensemble. Trevor Eve and Amanda Ooms led the way with their wonderfully emotional performances. They were backed up by some wonderful actors as well, Bruce Meyers, Peter Stormare, John Shrapnel and Shaun Dingwall are on the top of the list.
This movie, like many on the BBC or ITV have not been released to the public at large, except for several copies at the time of the release of the film. This is a case of sharing the wealth. I got mind from a young woman on ebay who had cleaned out her closet and sold it to me in her "yard sale".
I know I'm whining again, but I wish the BBC and ITV would understand how starved Americans(me) are for quality drama, that we'd sort through someone's yard sale to find it. There is a definite market out there for the products. This movie is a keeper and I will watch it until it collapses and hope I can find another.
