I’ve never seen a thriller this tense in a long time. Europa follows Kamal, a young Iraqi man who is trying to illegally cross the border between Turkey and Bulgaria. While crossing he is chased by a group of Bulgarian vigilantes. This film is intense from the opening minutes, the tone, danger, and the pace are all set, and it never let’s go for the full 72-minute runtime. The cinematography is simply stunning the camera never strays far from Kamal, the camera is always about 2 metres away. This tight and narrow view simply disorientates you; you, like the character don’t know the surroundings well and danger could be just out of frame. The cinematography is simply incredible.
Adam Ali is fantastic in the leading role; the role is so intimate and raw you truly believe and buy into all the hard ships that Kamal is going through and it all due to Adam Ali’s performance. I will say this is an extremely hard watch and I would say this is a film that I will only watch once. The film can be hopeful at one moment and despair inducing the next, the scenes that play out can be really shocking and in a way horrifying. Seeing all the hardships this character goes through for a better life. I fell Europa is an important film and I truly a must see. You may only stomach watching it once but by the ending you’ll have experienced a piece of important art.
