ALI & AVA – Review by Jennifer Merin

July 18, 2022July 28, 2022 Jennifer Merin

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Ali & Ava, the latest feature from brilliant British filmmaker Clio Barnard, is set in the ethnically diverse working class neighborhood of Bradford, England, where recently widowed Ava works as a kindergarten teacher’s assistant, beloved by the kids and underappreciated by her grown son whose family she is supporting.

The story kicks off as one suddenly rainy day, Ali, a well-meaning British-Pakistani man who regularly picks up a child from the school where Ava works, offers the teacher a dry ride home. On the way, the two quickly discover their mutual love for music and on that note become fast friends. Over the next weeks and in spite of the strong and threatening objections of Ava’s skinhead son, Ali and Ava become regular companions.

However, their intimate friendship and the joy it brings them are seriously challenged not only by the ethnic prejudices of both of their families, but by the unsettling emotional conflict raised in both of them by the presence of Ali’s estranged wife. Continue reading on CINEMA CITIZEN

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Jennifer Merin

Jennifer Merin is the Film Critic for Womens eNews and contributes the CINEMA CITIZEN blog for and is managing editor for Women on Film, the online magazine of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, of which she is President. She has served as a regular critic and film-related interviewer for The New York Press and About.com. She has written about entertainment for USA Today, The L.A. Times, US Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Endless Vacation Magazine, Daily News, New York Post, SoHo News and other publications. After receiving her MFA from Tisch School of the Arts (Grad Acting), Jennifer performed at the O'Neill Theater Center's Playwrights Conference, Long Wharf Theater, American Place Theatre and LaMamma, where she worked with renown Japanese director, Shuji Terayama. She subsequently joined Terayama's theater company in Tokyo, where she also acted in films. Her journalism career began when she was asked to write about Terayama for The Drama Review. She became a regular contributor to the Christian Science Monitor after writing an article about Marketta Kimbrell's Theater For The Forgotten, with which she was performing at the time. She was an O'Neill Theater Center National Critics' Institute Fellow, and then became the institute's Coordinator. While teaching at the Universities of Wisconsin and Rhode Island, she wrote "A Directory of Festivals of Theater, Dance and Folklore Around the World," published by the International Theater Institute. Denmark's Odin Teatret's director, Eugenio Barba, wrote his manifesto in the form of a letter to "Dear Jennifer Merin," which has been published around the world, in languages as diverse as Farsi and Romanian. Jennifer's culturally-oriented travel column began in the LA Times in 1984, then moved to The Associated Press, LA Times Syndicate, Tribune Media, Creators Syndicate and (currently) Arcamax Publishing. She's been news writer/editor for ABC Radio Networks, on-air reporter for NBC, CBS Radio and, currently, for Westwood One's America In the Morning. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association in the Film, Documentary and TV branches and a voting member of the Black Reel Awards. For her AWFJ archive, type "Jennifer Merin" in the Search Box (upper right corner of screen).