Review: In 'Limbo,' filmmaker Ben Sharrock makes a strong debut with a funny and absurd story about refugees dealing with boredom and guilt

Finding the funny in a tragic situation, writer-director Ben Sharrock’s “Limbo” is an offbeat but oddly warm story of men trapped in a bureaucratic nowhere.

The men are all refugees from the Middle East and Africa, living on a remote island in Scotland, waiting for their asylum appeals to be approved. They spend their days waiting to use the island’s one pay phone — there being only one spot where the cellphone reception is better than the boat that took them across the Mediterranean — or taking lessons in cultural assimilation by a local couple, Helga (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and Boris (Kenneth Collard). They spend their off hours finding items from the local donation center, such as the DVD set of “Friends” that sparks an argument between two African brothers (Kwabena Ansah and Ola Orebiyi) about the meaning of being “on a break.”

At the center of the film is Omar (Amir El-Masry), a refugee from war-ravaged Syria, who carries around his oud (sort of a round guitar) but never plays it, despite the urging of his perpetually chipper Afghani flatmate, Farhad (Vikash Bhai). As Sharrock takes us deeper into Omar’s story, we hear from his parents in Turkey, and hear about his brother, Nabil, who stayed in Syria to fight with the rebels.

Sharrock, in an impressively restrained feature debut, uses the absurd situation of strangers in an out-of-the-way little town to deadpan comic effect. Think “Schitt’s Creek” by way of “Napoleon Dynamite,” and you get a sense of the vibe Sharrock creates.

At the same time, though, Sharrock never forgets the tragedies and pain these characters have suffered to get to this point. He lets his talented actors, particularly El-Masry and Bhai, play through their conflicting emotions: Boredom because they cannot seek employment, frustration that their asylum approval letter never comes, and anxiety that it will come with bad news. They may be stuck in “Limbo,” but the viewer may delight in where they’ve landed.

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‘Limbo’ 

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, April 30, in theaters where open. Rated R for language. Running time: 104 minutes; in English and in Arabic, with subtitles.