A widower and a soon-to-be-divorced schoolteacher fall into an unlikely romance in Ali & Ava, a 2021 British drama from director Clio Barnard that finds warmth in an unglamorous corner of England.
What is Ali & Ava about?
Ali, a landlord with an easy laugh and a habit of hiding his own sadness behind it, and Ava, a teacher who has spent years steadying other people's children, meet through Sofia, a pupil of Ava's who happens to live in one of Ali's rental houses. What starts as small talk over a shared fondness for the girl turns into something neither of them expected: long drives with the music turned up, easy silences, and the slow discovery that they make sense together. Both are carrying histories that complicate the timing — separate marriages, separate griefs, separate circles of family who have opinions about who they should be with. The film follows them as they try to hold onto something new while the weight of their old lives keeps pulling at the edges.
About the cast
Adeel Akhtar and Claire Rushbrook lead as Ali and Ava, with Natalie Gavin, Macy Shackleton, Ellora Torchia, Shaun Thomas, Mona Goodwin, and Krupa Pattani filling out the surrounding cast of family and neighbours who orbit the central relationship.
Context & significance
Director Clio Barnard, working from her own script, builds the romance out of small, specific details rather than big declarations, letting music and driving scenes do as much emotional work as dialogue. The film sits in the same tradition of British social-realist drama that pays close attention to class, community, and the ordinary textures of working lives, using that grounding to make an age-gap, cross-community romance feel entirely plausible rather than a plot contrivance.
Watching Ali & Ava on Ktime
Ali & Ava streams on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles available, giving Farsi-speaking viewers an easy way into a very British love story. A free K-Time account login is all that's needed to start watching; the film's page can be browsed without one, part of a catalogue built specifically for Persian-speaking audiences abroad.