For the English, the French port town of Calais is the gateway to Europe or a place to buy cheap alcohol. For hundreds of refugees and migrants it is the final barrier in the desperate search for a new life in England. This intimate film weaves together character driven stories of refugees, migrants and English expatriates to build a picture of life in a transient town where the inhabitants dream of somewhere better. Original music by Mustafa Santic and Michel Duvoisin. Rented with kind permissi find out more...

The film is based on the life of John Reed, the Communist, journalist, and writer who chronicled the Russian Revolution in his book Ten Days that Shook the World. The film works both as a history of the American left and as an epic romance, between Reed and Louise Bryant, an important feminist and radical journalist in her own right. After involvement with labour and political disputes in the US, they go to Russia in time for the 1917 October Revolution and, inspired, return to the US, hoping to find out more...