''Shelter'' is a 2014 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

written and directed by

Paul Bettany Paul Bettany (born 27 May 1971) is an English actor. He is mostly known for his roles as J.A.R.V.I.S. and Vision in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, recently starring in the Disney+ miniseries '' WandaVision'' (2021), for which he was nominate ...

in his

directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many film makers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

. The film stars

Jennifer Connelly Jennifer Lynn Connelly (born December 12, 1970) is an American actress. She began her career as a child model before making her acting debut in the 1984 crime film ''Once Upon a Time in America''. After having worked as a model for several year ...

and

Anthony Mackie Anthony Dwane Mackie (born September 23, 1978) is an American actor. Mackie made his acting debut starring in the semi-biographical drama film '' 8 Mile'' (2002). He was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor for his pe ...

, alongside a supporting cast featuring Rob Morgan, Amy Hargreaves, and

Bruce Altman Bruce Altman (born July 3, 1955) is an American film and television actor. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. Early life Altman was born in The Bronx, New York. He is of Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish ...

. It was released on November 13, 2015, by

Screen Media Films Screen Media Ventures, LLC. is an American-Canadian distribution company founded in 2001. In 2008, Screen Media selected The Creative Coalition as its exclusive nonprofit partner in launching the Spotlight Initiative. The partnership permits the p ...

Plot

Tahir, an Illegal immigrant from

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, and Hannah, a

heroin addict Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a substance use disorder characterized by cravings for opioids, continued use despite physical and/or psychological deterioration, increased tolerance with use, and withdrawal symptoms after discontinuing opioids. O ...

, live homeless on the streets of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. Tahir, a devout Muslim who is polite to everyone he meets, survives by performing music in city parks, while Hannah lies, steals and sells her body to get her next fix. When Tahir saves Hannah from a suicide attempt, the two form a friendship. Over the year that follows, they share their pasts, and their friendship turns to love. Their circumstances begin to improve, but Tahir falls ill and eventually "joins" his wife and child who died in Nigeria. His love for Hannah helps her overcome her addiction and return to her son in California.

Cast

as Hannah *

as Tahir * Rob Morgan as Franklin * Amy Hargreaves as Carrie *

as Peter *

Kevin Geer Kevin Scully Geer (November 7, 1952 – January 25, 2017) was an American actor of stage and screen. Kevin Geer's father died when he was an infant. He moved from Reno, Nevada to Los Angeles with his mother, Claire Scully Geer. After graduat ...

as Walter * Alok Tewari as Abdul * Scott Johnsen as Terry *

Babs Olusanmokun Babs Olusanmokun (born September 18, 1984) is a Nigerian-American actor. In 2017, he appeared in " Black Museum", an episode of the anthology series ''Black Mirror''. He also appeared in the video game ''Max Payne 3'' as Serrano, for which he p ...

as Hospital Security Guard

Production

On August 21, 2013, it was announced

would direct the film.

Release

The film premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

on September 12, 2014. On January 14, 2015,

acquired distribution rights to the film and released it on November 13, 2015.

Reception

''Shelter'' has received generally mixed reviews from critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has a rating of 46%, based on 24 reviews, with an average score of 5.6/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a score of 43 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shelter (2014 Film) 2014 films 2010s English-language films 2014 drama films American drama films American independent films Films about homelessness Films about interracial romance 2014 directorial debut films 2014 independent films 2010s American films