This period of limbo is plagued with tiresome, demoralising indignities that arise from casual racism raining down from various figures of authority. For much of the film the camera gazes lengthily, languorously, peacefully at landscapes, skyscapes and topographies; snow-covered mountainsides, cow-dotted pastures, cascades and pastoral lanes are all captured in striking black and white. Yet this is no holiday brochure, for the stark beauty of the images is pierced by unsettling questions that have perhaps drained them of colour: What does it mean to exist in a place where one is neither welcome nor unwelcome? How is it that such a decision rests on arbitrary boundaries, arbitrary histories, and policies that value paperwork over dignity?
