Directed by Ken Loach and starring Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting, The Full Monty and  Ravenous) and Oyanka Cabezas (Sandino and La Yuma)  Carla’s Song tells the story of Glasgow bus driver, George Lennox (Carlyle) and the young Nicaraguan woman Carla (Cabezas) who just so happens to get on his bus and turn his life upside down. 

After that initial meeting, Carla turns up on George’s doorstep with a gift to thank him for standing up for her against the overly officious conductor, but before a fake telephone number. As chance would have it, George does run into Carla again, dancing in the street and after following her back to where she is staying he arranges for her to stay in his friend’s spare room. The couple begin to form a close bond and when George arrives at the flat to find Carla has attempted to take her own life he starts to piece together something of her broken existence. Thus ends the first act of this two-act movie.

In the film’s second act, George attempts to help Carla piece together her life and find out what has happened to her family by taking her back to war-torn Nicaragua. What started out as a love story in the first act suddenly switches to something far more political as George begins to learn about life in Nicaragua and the ongoing war between the Sandinistas and the American-backed Contras who rule the country. Through dream flashbacks we learn of Carla’s awful life before she fled to Scotland, however, it is the images of the innocent victims of a bus explosion that are among the most harrowing and will stay with the viewer long after the film ends. As the couple are drawn further and further into the turmoil that surrounds them, the viewer gets a front seat look at life in Nicaragua during the 1990s. 

Carla’s Song is a powerful slice of social realism from Ken Loach, a deeply affecting film that was not well received at the time of its release. This is most likely due to the difficult nature of the story and the ongoing conflict in Nicaragua at the time. Both Carlyle and Cabezas are excellent in their respective roles, while Scott Glenn supports ably as Bradley, the former CIA agent turned aid worker. I found Carla’s Song to be something of a forgotten masterpiece that manages to seamlessly blend the story of Carla and George’s relationship with that of the socio-political situation in Nicaragua at the time, leaving the viewer deeply affected by the consequences of the ongoing war on normal people who are just trying to live a regular life. 

The disc features a host of bonus materials including an audio commentary with director, Loach and writer Paul Laverty, as well as series of featurettes discussing both the film and the socio-political situation in Nicaragua. So another great reissue of a less seen/ known film from Powerhouse.