Roadblocks **

Starring: Hussein Abdulah, Ahmet Guli, Falaha Hassan

With recent attacks on Kurdish refugees in Glasgow bringing fresh fire to the immigration debate, Stavros Ioannou’s Roadblocks could not have come at a more poignant time. Telling the story of Ayat, a Kurd who illegally travels to Greece to find his brother, the film offers a valuable insight into the fears and frustrations faced by those who make the long walk from wartorn Kurdistan to the West. Forced to confront starvation, freezing conditions and minefields, many travel the hundreds of miles to Europe only to drown on the overcrowded boats used by the Mafia to transport illegal immigrants between Albania and Italy.

While Roadblocks is a worthwhile showcase of their plight, it is let down as a piece of cinema by a weak and repetitive script that does little to explain their reasons for leaving Kurdistan . Attacks on their villages by both Turkish and Iraqi troops are mentioned, but their accounts sound more like news stories than personal experiences, passing over the colour that would have brought this film to life.

Writing the script after interviewing refugees living on and around Athens’s Koumoundourou Square, Ioannou treats his subjects with sensitivity and grace, opting to use interviewees rather than actors as his protagonists. The grim locations and the refugees’ mundane conversations do intelligently reflect the intense boredom suffered by so many of the penniless immigrants, but Roadblocks lacks the depth to inspire much more than indifference in its audience.

Filmhouse, Edinburgh, tomorrow and 18 August