A swimming instructor decides to help a 17-year-old Iraqi Kurdish refugee cross the English Channel from France in this absorbing, exquisitely crafted drama from veteran director Philippe Lioret. One of the many desperate displaced persons arriving in Calais and negotiating the Scylla of French immigration policies and the Charybdis of England’s strict border controls, Bilal (bright newcomer Firat Ayverdi) lands on the idea of taking advanced swimming lessons at a local pool in preparation for a winter Channel crossing. His instructor, Simon (veteran French actor Vincent Lindon), is a depressed man floundering in the wake of a separation from his wife; more inundated by the past than brashly enamored by the future unlike his young charge. Simon soon discerns Bilal’s plan and, unable to dissuade him from it, backs his attempt for his own private reasons but with increasing sympathy for the young man’s plight. Lioret’s masterful direction of his actors (both professional and nonprofessional) grounds a politically timely, astute tale in palpable relationships and memorable lives.

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Written by Olivier Adam, Emmanuel Courcol, Philippe Lioret. Photographed by Laurent Dailland. With Firat Ayverdi, Vincent Lindon, Derya Ayverdi, Audrey Dana. (110 min. In French, Kurdish and English with English subtitles, Films Distribution)