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The Ransom Note Jun 3, 2014
"We’ve all witnessed UKIP’s rise during the recent elections in Britain, and Goodison’s powerful movie appropriately looks at the hardship endured by young adult asylum seekers. The film intimately portrays the difficulties suffered by the thousands of asylum seekers throughout the country, giving a voice to those who are purely searching for a better life in Britain.
Leave to Remain is a stylish and modern take on a serious issue currently at the forefront of British politics and culture."
by Ross Weber
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Cine Vue (LFF 2013 review) Oct 2, 2013
"Bruce Goodison's feature debut, the good-natured Leave to Remain (2013), imbues the meticulous rigour of a documentary with the conventional methodology of a narrative drama to create an unusual deviation on the coming-of-age tale. A film about children thrust into adulthood thanks to their status as asylum seekers, Goodison looks to give a voice to the thousands of young refugees currently fighting their case in the courtrooms of the United Kingdom."
by Patrick Gamble
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TIME OUT Oct 2, 2013
"this is a very watchable, frequently powerful film shot through with a pervasive, troubling sense of lives caught in the balance – between the horrors of home and the relative calm of London, between the joy of escape and the threat of repatriation, between ‘foreign-ness’ and ‘Englishness’."
by Tom Huddleston
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Total Film Jun 18, 2014
"[Toby Jones is] back in cinemas this week with Leave To Remain, a touching drama about an Afghan boy's struggle to fit in when he arrives in the UK, with Jones playing the kind-hearted teacher who runs the local refuge centre"
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Socialist Worker Jun 10, 2014
"It is clearly well researched, covering the minute details of the asylum process"
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Front Row Reviews Jun 17, 2014
Bruce Goodison’s provocative, important and touching Leave To Remain is a film that was crying out to be made but it would take a very sensitive team to put this tale together.
Leave To Remain is the imperative sort of film causing discussion right now, which causes the audience to look internally and at the society they live in.
By Ollie Charles
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The Wharf - EEFF Top 5 Recommendations Jun 12, 2014
"Social discrimination and adjusting to life in the UK are given powerful, emotive force in Leave to Remain, the debut feature from award-winning TV director Bruce Goodison."
by Lucia Blash & Giles Broadbent
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Sight & Sound Jun 13, 2014
"Goodison is well served by his cast of non-professional actors"
"the spectres of the actors' own stories haunt the narrative with a particular poignancy"
by Catherine Wheatley
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Televisual - Interview with Bruce Goodison Jun 13, 2014
"People who've lived this for real clearly have a parallel emotional experience. They believe what they're doing. You can't buy that."
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The Guardian Jun 19, 2014
"Goodison displays a sure, Shane Meadows-like touch with his lively unknown leads, and finds eloquent, cinematic ways of describing their hopes, dreams and fears."
by Mike McCahill
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Cine Vue (2014 Release Review) Jun 10, 2014
"Leave to Remain...prove[s] a compelling watch and gives [a] voice to a group who rarely have one."
by Ben Nicholson
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The Independent Jun 20, 2014
"Goodison, helped by a likeable young cast, brings moments of humour and lyricism to the storytelling."
by Geoffrey MacNab
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So So Gay Jun 19, 2014
"The film takes a fearless look at the ‘controversial’ issue of immigration, focusing on the characters and what they’ve been subjected to, and then contrasting those disturbing scenes with the delight of life in London. Some of the best moments are when Goodison simply captures the characters sitting down, deep in thought, making for some incredibly powerful visuals.
Goodison delivers a meaningful and poignant story. That makes Leave to Remain well worth checking out. Soundtrack buffs will also find additional enjoyment in the score, from Mercury Music Prize-winners Alt-J."
by Jazz Tangcay
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Clash Music Magazine Jun 18, 2014
Alt J: "Leave to Remain [is] a film that deserve[s] as wide an audience as possible... The finished film is beautifully made, and balances its important message with a great cast of characters and an engrossing story. We are proud to have been a part of it."
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BBC Radio 4 Film Programme Jun 19, 2014
Toby Jones discusses what it was like working with young refugees whose life stories form the plot of Leave To Remain.
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The Evening Standard Jun 20, 2014
"Toby Jones: 'The rise of UKIP [has] made the story more relevant' "
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Mark Kermode, The Observer Jun 22, 2014
"this ambitious low-budget feature lends an authentic voice to often marginalised figures."
"convincing and engaging"
by Mark Kermode
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Little White Lies Jun 19, 2014
"This intense, no-fi asylum seeker drama manages to make a big noise with a very small drum."
by Sophie Monks Kaufman
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The Sunday Times Jun 22, 2014
"Bruce Goodison’s film is an awareness-raising journalistic work, drawing attention to the kind of ordeals that cause people to flee to Britain and encouraging us to put ourselves in these new arrivals’ shoes."
by Edward Porter
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Hunger TV Jul 1, 2014
"There is a constant of care that runs through this film that strangely moved me, its genuineness is its strength, and ultimately its primary concern is in the humanity and regardless of the politics and we should not forget that these are children."
by Richard Ansett
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The Debrief Jun 25, 2014
"If you watch one film this week, make it Leave to Remain"
"So, is it worth seeing? Oh for sure. If only to see how terrifying it must be for someone so young with minimal English to arrive in this country. ... Listening to the things the teenagers describe the things they witnessed in their own countries by such tender ages is enough to make you take a long hard look at your own life and be grateful for everything you have."
by Jess Commons
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Indiewire Nov 28, 2012
LEAVE TO REMAIN ANNOUNCED ON INDIE WIRE
"Toby Jones has joined the cast of Bruce Goodison's "Leave to Remain," a coming-of-age story centering on a group of teenagers who have escaped their respective countries and banded together in a hidden underworld of London. Principal photography is underway."
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Sceen Daily Jun 24, 2013
FILM SELECTED BY FILM LONDON FOR AUDIENCE ON DEMAND
"Film London has revealed the 12 projects participating inAudience on Demand, the training and mentorship programme addressing the changing face of feature film distribution."
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Televisual Feb 21, 2013
INTERVIEW WITH THE DIRECTOR IN TELEVISUAL
"Director Bruce Goodison trained young asylum seekers to star in a fact-based low-budget drama feature that tells the story of parentless teenagers fleeing their home countries and hoping to make a new life in the UK."
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