Where Hands Touch

Despite revisiting themes examined with tact, intelligence and precision in Belle (2013) and A United Kingdom (2016), director Amma Asante allows cliché and contrivance to shape what could have been a fascinating saga inspired by the experiences of the 25,000 so-called "Rhineland bastards", who were fathered by French colonial troops during the Great War. Having relocated to Berlin with mother Kerstin (Abbie Cornish) and her younger white brother (Tom Sweet), half-Senegalese teenager Leyna (The Hate U Give's Amandla Stenberg) falls for a reluctant Hitler Youth recruit (George MacKay), who has learnt tolerance through the jazz records clandestinely owned by his soldier father (Christopher Eccleston). Despite insisting the cast adopt a faintly risible Germanic inflection, Asante just about maintains credibility as Stenberg and MacKay take reckless risks to be together (even though their on-screen chemistry is palpably lacking). But, once the scene switches to a concentration camp, proceedings descend into implausible melodrama to the swelling strains of Anne Chmelewsky's mawkishly manipulative score. A frustratingly wasted opportunity.