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‘The Strangers’ Case’ Review: A Polished But Heavy-Handed Thriller Sorts the Villains From the Victims of the Syrian Refugee Crisis
Brandt Andersen's debut feature 'The Strangers' Case' has technical aplomb, but the storytelling too often feels cheaply rigged for suspense.
When their family home is razed in another air strike — leaving numerous relatives dead — Amira and Rasha flee for the border, stowed in the trunk of a car so as to escape the notice of Assad officials, though the question of their survival at a tense checkpoint is left in limbo as the film cuts to its next chapter. “The Poet” follows Fathi (Ziad Bakri), a Syrian writer and family man attempting to shepherd his wife and chldren across the Aegean, while “The Captain” is centered on Stavros (Constantine Markoulakis), a valiant Greek coast guard putting his life on the line to bring the boatloads safely to shore, as his son frets from the sidelines. “The Strangers’ Case” is titled for a prescient, Shakespeare-written speech from the play “Sir Thomas More,” in defence of those displaced from their country and barred from others: “Would you be pleased to find a nation of such barbarous temper that, breaking out in hideous violence, would not afford you an abode on earth?” Brandt’s debut hasn’t quite the Bard’s poetry, but the plaintive conscience is present and correct.
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