BFI

Basic Films, under producer Leon Clore, made this film for the Central Office of Information and the Foreign Office to mark International Refugee Year.

Director John Krish's empathy for his subject may have been influenced by his own family's immigrant background. Typically of Krish, Return to Life (1960) crosses the boundaries of documentary and fiction by using real-life refugees to play characters in a fictionalised narrative about a family newly arrived in the UK and beginning to integrate into British life.

The deeply compassionate treatment of this theme, following an opening section drawing attention to Britain's history as a haven for refugees, serves as a reminder that the UK was not always as keen to demonstrate the 'hard line' approach to immigration and asylum that it tends to favour today (particularly when addressing its own citizens).

Patrick Russell

*This film is included in the BFI DVD compilation 'Shadows of Progress: Documentary Film in Post-War Britain 1951-1977'.

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