The Visitor

Flying back from New York, as Lady V grasped my arm in terror at the horrid turbulence we had to endure for some 2 hours, I lazily selected a film on the screen in front of me, about which I had heard little, and from which I expected even less: The Visitor.

The trailer barely does it justice. This is a complex, profound drama about intertwined destinies in a fragmented world, in which the characters move aimlessly in search of meaning and human touch. Above all, it is about the insanity of immigration policies in a post-9/11 world, were security concerns are able crush people's lives in a web of Kafkian consequences. The set is New York, but it could easily be London or Rome.

I cried when the film ended. Not many have achieved this. Astonishing.