There’s much to admire in The Lion at My Back, a Cyprus-set story of two women, one a recovering addict (Elena Kallinikou), the other a teenage Senegalese refugee (Sokhna Diallo). But despite its evocative atmosphere, fine performances and striking cinematography, Greek Cypriot director Tonia Mishiali’s follow-up to her well-received debut Pause is stippled with a few too many dramatic clichés. Even so, its positive message about female friendship and found families — and mostly English dialogue — is likely to help it along to further festivals following its premiere in Karlovy Vary’s main competition.
Mariama (Dialo) is first met celebrating her 18th birthday in the woman’s shelter she’s been living in for some time, her only home since she arrived in Cyprus on a flimsy boat, seeking sanctuary from a forced marriage back in Senegal. But for all the singing and dancing at the little birthday bash, this is a melancholy occasion as well because Mariama will have to make her own way in Cyprus now with scant assistance from the state. Homeless when the landlords she approaches slam their doors in her face, implicitly because of racism, Mariama keeps coming back and climbing the fence to stay near her friends at the shelter.
