Film & Television

John Maguire: One woman’s story brings home the grim realities of direct provision

Feature film and documentary maker Frank Berry presents a powerful first-person insight into humanity bowed by heartless bureaucracy

Letitia Wright and Josh O’Connor in Aisha, the story of a Nigerian asylum seeker fleeing violence in her own country and living in direct provision here

With a background in community and documentary film-making, Frank Berry’s first feature I Used to Live Here (released in 2015) examined the phenomenon of suicide clusters in Tallaght and had a script developed from workshops with youth workers. His follow-up, Michael Inside, brought us behind the walls of the crumbling Irish penal system and was again based on first-person testimonies.

Now with Aisha, the Dubliner tells the story of a Nigerian asylum seeker fleeing violence ...