DIR/WRI: David Gleeson • PROD: Nathalie Lichtenthaeler • DOP: Volker Tittel • ED: Stuart Gazzard • DES: Jim Furlong • CAST: Eriq Ebouaney, James Frain, Gerard McSorley, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Orla O'Rourke, Fatou N'Diaye, Bryan Eli Sebunya, Ian McElhinney
Three years ago, director David Gleeson first made his mark with a promising feature-length debut, Cowboys & Angels, an engaging teen rites of passage tale set in Limerick. Now he's back with The Front Line, an Irish-African heist movie that tackles a little-known war in the Congo and the immigrants' experience of our post-Celtic Tiger wonderland, in that order.
When Joe Yumba (Eriq Ebouaney) arrives in Dublin from the Congo, he is pleased to get a job as a bank security guard and have his wife Kala (Fatou N'Diaye) and son Daniel (Bryan Eli Sebunya) join him from home. Haunted by nightmares and covered in scars, he clearly has good reason to seek asylum. But just as things are looking up, fresh disaster strikes in the form of local criminal Eddie Gilroy (James Frain) and his gang who take Kala and Daniel hostage and force Joe to allow them midnight access to the bank's inner vaults.
But Joe is neither a straightforward victim nor a hero; his 'family', it has already been implied, is not all it seems. The mystery of his true identity and his recent history is one of the more tantalising aspects of a plot punctuated by impressive twists and turns and underscored by a wonderfully brooding, doom-laden atmosphere.
Having played the title role in Lumumba (2000), Eriq Ebouaney is no stranger to events in the Congo. The Paris-based actor brings conviction, dignity and serious screen presence to the lead in The Front Line. As his screen wife, Fatou N'Diaye is another actor the camera loves. She plays a woman of few words, easily communicating instead via facial expression and body language.
Of the Irish contingent, reliable veterans Gerard McSorley and Ian McElhinney make characteristically strong contributions to the ensemble. As Detective Inspector Harbison, McSorley (for once) gets to play a good cop, a man whose own personal tragedy and loss gives him an understanding, as matters unfold, of Joe's predicament (a sympathetic immigration official, whatever next?). McElhinney plays the smaller but vital part of Mikey, a cleaner and casual racist at the bank.
Good performances all round (Englishman James Frain makes a great Dublin gangster), save for newcomer to the silver screen, Orla O'Rourke. She admittedly doesn't have much to do as Detective Susan Clohessy except look supportive, and turns in a fairly wooden offering.
For spills, thrills and striking locations, The Front Line is an exciting second movie from David Gleeson. Joe's flashbacks to his native country are genuinely disturbing, while Ireland's capital city is seen from the outsider's perspective, from the cold formality of the immigration office to the bustle of Moore Street market. The crowded shopping chaos of Henry Street plays a crucial role in a late stand-off scene between Joe and Gilroy's gang. A tendency to intermittent sentimentality, particularly in the final encounter between Joe and DI Harbison in Christchurch, mars the tone on occasion, but if that's the price to pay for The Front Line bringing some emotion to the fore, then so be it.
The Front Line is released on 25th August 2006.