The Visitor

A simmering drama about a recently widowed college professor, Walter Vale, who discovers a pair of illegal aliens, the victims of a real-estate scam, living in his New York apartment. After the mix-up is resolved, Vale invites the couple - a young, Syrian musician Tarek and his Senegalese girlfriend - to stay with him. An unlikely friendship develops between the quiet, retiring Vale and the vibrant Tarek. Vale begins to loosen up and respond to Tarek's drumming lessons as if something in him, waiting to be liberated, has finally been unleashed. All goes well until Tarek is hauled in by immigration authorities and threatened with deportation.