This was a very good and powerful film that combined two genres that have probably not been combined before - a contemporary social drama about the process of immigrant refugees coming in to the country and a supernatural haunted house thriller.
The first 30 minutes or so are more like a Ken Loach film with the washed out colours of the cinematography, the grinding and petty bureaucracy that refugees and others have to navigate with their lengthy and petty rules and the depressed and resigned individuals who have to administer this system. Matt Smith is excellent as their case officer who, like them, has had to adapt to a seemingly drastic and probably unwelcome change of life and work - he used to be a bank employee but is now a relatively lowly cog in the Social Services web.
The refugee couple, Bol and Rial have differing approaches form the start. Bol is passionately determined to make this a success and will put up with much to make this happen and is very eager to fully assimilate while Rial finds it much more difficult, not venturing out of the house for some time and then, when she does, encountering petty and vicious racism form non-white older teens who live on the sink estate where they have been given a house. there was one very powerful scene where, when he went to the small supermarket for the first time which we somehow managed to see through his eyes as a positive cornucopia of lavish extravagance. But as son as he went in he was, not very discreetly, followed and observed by the security guard. nothing was made of this, he was not stopped or anything, but this was just one example of the thoughtful care that had gone into the showing of the immigrant experience. And the fact that Bol was completely unaware of this made it all the more powerful.
Their difference in how they were able to approach their new experiences was wonderfully shown in an early scene where Rial prepared a meal for them - but served it on the floor and without cutlery, as they would presumably have done back in the Sudan. Bol gets forks for them (Rial says on using that she can only taste metal) and gently suggests that perhaps they could use the table next time; a beautifully observed scene that spoke volumes.
When supernatural/unexplained events begin to happen there is a convincing ambiguity about them which suggests not only that perhaps some sounds may simply be the new sounds from outside in their new world and/or a sign of PTSD due to the traumas that they suffered on their way to the UK. However, as well as the whole process of adapting, they are also mourning the loss of their daughter on the voyage. But, as the film develops and we approach the climax, we find out that there is a lot more to that story - and a very dark element - than at first appears.
The supernatural element is really well and convincingly handled and is very much at the service of the story - no lengthy gruesome shock-horror scenes here - and the climax and aftermath are very powerful and, most importantly, convincing. By the end it seems they have come to terms with their ghosts and I loved the final images of all of their slaughtered friends whom they had left behind filling the house. This was a very smart way to indicate that, although they may, in their final shot, appear to have/will wholly succeed in their ability to start a new life in the UK, they will always have the ghosts of their experiences with them. The final image of Bol and Rial shows them in colourful, wholly Western clothes standing side by side, like the models seen in the supermarket advertisement earlier on.
A marvellous gem; I look forward to future films by the same maker.