Film

Welcome to Britain (1976)

Director: Ben Lewin

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Lewin's documentary concerns the appalling treatment meted out to immigrants and Commonwealth visitors on arrival in Britain rather than the question of whether immigration controls should exist. He chose the colourful and unorthodox entrepreneur Reuben 'Mr Fixit' Davis to illustrate his point about the system: that a man who (according to the Home Office) was able to earn thousands from helping his clients enter the country, was actually preferable to the insular bureaucracy of the official advisory service, let alone the immigration officers themselves. Well-made documentary that it is, it insists on taking sides, but without ever entering the realms of dogma: the scenes at Harmondsworth Detention Centre, peopled by the 'suspect' friends and relatives of those whom 'we don't need' any more, say it all.

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