There’s a lot to like about Blue Has No Borders, as the filmmaker Jessi Gutch provides us with a documentary that tackles Britain’s identity crisis and shows that, like everything in life, it was already there right in our faces and is a lot more hopeful than we think.

In Folkestone, which refugees attempt to reach from France daily, tensions are rife. Old traditions die hard, voices struggle to be heard, and the notion of British identity is regularly asserted and contested. In the face of mounting pressure, Jessi Gutch sets out to do the unthinkable: seek common ground. Honest conversations with six people, grappling with the divisions surrounding race, class, and politics, give way to a rumination on how to make sense of our present moment, despite all the uncertainty and fear.

Blue Has No Borders showcases the complexities of post-Brexit life in England, particularly at a time when tensions are at their highest, with misinformation fueling heinous acts of violence. To see a group of people, who in the media are usually stereotyped to high heaven, given the time to share their stories and eventually converse positively on the windy beach of the seaside town of Folkestone is as heartening a scene as can be and shows that our supposed identity crisis as an island isn’t as widespread as some people would like us to believe.

Filmmaker Jessi Gutch aimed to highlight and potentially bridge the divides within England, specifically in their hometown of Folkestone and with that, she succeeds. She shows us that a town at the brunt of the migrant crisis can be a small beacon of hope, a lighthouse in the fog of national contempt. During Blue Has No Borders, she brings together a group of people who, for the most part, feel they are not connected to the idealistic English identity that so many on the right believe to be the true way.

From Heba, an immigrant from war-torn Syria who has lost her father and brother and is coming to terms with seeing her younger sister assimilate with Western ways, in which she feels she can’t. Dan, a non-binary drag performer who goes under the name of Dita, has felt detached from their traditional working-class background, from which they still receive angst from people of a similar working-class background, yet has an increasingly accepting elderly father.

Josie, who grew up in the town, was one of the very few black kids in the community and as such felt a connection to the refugees as she had felt how those in the country and town had acted towards the colour of her skin, despite her being English. These are people who are part of our communities, yet feel separate from them because of differences that they have had no say in. They want to live happily in an accepting place and thrive, which is really the most basic of requests, right?

Interestingly, Gutch admits to forgetting the forlorn fishermen of the town. People who were part of an industry that was thriving 100 years ago are now on the cusp os ending, with the current elder generation of fishermen likely being the last. They are people who, for the past decade, if not longer, have been forgotten about, ignored as the lives they knew have been taken from them. Yet, they see the struggles of these migrants on those small vessels every day, unable to help but direct them towards Dover.

Gutch, for the most part, keeps an affable and friendly tone with their subjects, as we hear their voice from behind the camera as she converses with them. Yet she cannot hide the angst she originally has for former military and councilman Neil. Their interaction verges close to antagonistic as Gutch simply cannot hold back her disdain for the man.

However, as we see more of the duo, we see that disdain diminishes, and we see that Neil is not what we thought he would be. He is not a bombastic and loud man who believes in England staying English. He voted for Brexit as he felt the country shouldn’t have been as connected and dependent on the continent. Gutch actually shows us how she fell for the preconceived notion of what a Brexiteer is. Neil is friendly and, importantly, respectful, continually throwing Jessi off with how he formed a friendship with Iranian refugees and shared a meal, bringing Shiraz, etc. He even gets emotional when he realises he may have forgotten to say goodbye to some of that group, as they will be moving from the immigration centre.

She confesses to him that she hasn’t quite figured him out as he is so different from what she was expecting. This underscores the diverse and wide range of opinions in Britain, and is a perfect example of how our identity isn’t defined by the color of our skin or our background. It’s in our diversity, which is the true history of that land. It has always evolved and changed; why should it stop? This revelation should leave us feeling enlightened and more open-minded about the complexity of British identity.

The culmination of all this within Blue Has No Borders is the dinner scene on the beach, where the subjects can learn about and seek that common ground. This is where the documentary truly pays off, and this discussion is the key to the documentary’s success. Instead of any possible antagonistic remarks, we see a friendly and positive dinner. Yes, politically, they are on different sides; one thing remains true to them all. They want everyone to be respectful; in reality, this is the real Britain, this is the real England, and importantly, for this group, this is the real Folkestone.

Neil recognises the patchwork nature of the town of Folksetone itself, noting how the architecture is Belgian due to migrants from the First World War. He, like Nathan, loves their country, but what good is in loving a country that cannot accept others who need their help, or those who want to improve their life? Throughout the film, we see that again and again. For the majority of us, the colour or sexuality of a person shouldn’t and doesn’t matter. Nathan comments on how meaningless it is that people judge Heba for her hijab.

This scene, while warming to watch, is almost disappointing. Disappointing in the sense that you wish there was even more of their dinner and conversation shown. Blue Has No Borders has been building to this discussion for the previous 70 or so minutes, only to eventually reach a scene that feels truncated and leaves us feeling slightly shortchanged. Even if the conversation had stayed as positive as it was, we want to see that; we want to experience this group conversing and connecting, as that is, in the end, the point of it all. To find people different from you and connect with them. That is what our modern national identity is, and it feels like a missed opportunity not to showcase that more within the film.

However, you understand that Gutch wanted to cover as wide a range of subjects as possible for their film, so that we can show as much of their stories from that period as possible, which is vital in helping us connect with them. Ultimately, Blue Has No Borders aimed to try and figure out the English identity, when really, if you pushed through all of the radical rights nonsense, it was there all along, it’s just not publicised enough. Jessi Gutch’s film should go a long way to show people the real England.

★★★ 1/2

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