The Fundy Film Society

The Immigrant

The Immigrant

In James Gray’s The Immigrant, Ewa Cybulska (Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone, Midnight in Paris, La Vie en Rose) and her sister Magda (Angela Sarafyan) sail to New York from their native Poland in 1921. They are in search of a new start and the American dream but when they reach Ellis Island, doctors discover that Magda is ill, and the two women are separated.

Ewa is released onto the mean streets of Manhattan while her sister is quarantined. Alone, with nowhere to turn and desperate to reunite with Magda, Ewa quickly falls prey to Bruno (Joaquin Phoenix, Her, The Master), a charming but wicked man who takes her in and forces her into prostitution. And then one day, Ewa encounters Bruno’s cousin, the debonair magician Orlando (Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker). He sweeps Ewa off her feet and quickly becomes her only chance to escape the nightmare in which she finds herself.

“You may often find yourself second-guessing the film, questioning how—and if—it will all come together. But by the time of the intense and impassioned climax, a storm of emotion is ensured: a great movie rising before you like a delusion, like a dream.” (Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York)

“What really sets The Immigrant apart is how urgent it feels. Historical dramas often have a reserve that comes with perspective, but nearly a full century removed from this story, Gray seems, if anything, more emotionally invested here than in his contemporary dramas.” (Scott Tobias, The Dissolve)

“Visually evokes Coppola’s Godfather Part II and Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America, but in its utterly irony-free melodramatic sincerity also suggests a silent-era woman’s picture à la D.W. Griffith, King Vidor or G.W. Pabst.” (Geoff Pevere, The Globe and Mail)