Drift backdrop
Drift

Drift

6.7 / 1020241h 33m

Synopsis

After fleeing civil war in Liberia, a formerly-privileged refugee is barely scraping by in her new life in Greece when she strikes up an unexpected friendship with a rootless tour guide.

Genre: Drama, Romance

Status: Released

Director: Anthony Chen

Website: https://drift.film

Main Cast

Cynthia Erivo

Cynthia Erivo

Jacqueline Kamara

Alia Shawkat

Alia Shawkat

Callie

Ibrahima Ba

Ibrahima Ba

Ousmane

Honor Swinton Byrne

Honor Swinton Byrne

Helen

Zainab Jah

Zainab Jah

Etweda Kamara

Suzy Bemba

Suzy Bemba

Saifa

Vincent Vermignon

Vincent Vermignon

Michael

Abigail Boyd

Abigail Boyd

Adele

Amanda Drew

Amanda Drew

Sonia

Luca Calvani

Luca Calvani

Italian Man

Trailer

User Reviews

CinemaSerf

To be honest, I was a little disappointed with this story. It's clear that Cynthia Erivo has put her heart and soul into it, but the story just has too many holes in it for me. We first meet her "Jacqueline" character as she wanders the streets of a small greek island town pinching the sugar sachets. Quickly, we discover that she has barely more than the clothes she stands up in, sleeps on a blanket in a sheltered cave and gets about blagging trips on tourist buses. Via flashbacks we are told of her privileged background in her native Liberia and of a love affair with a British woman (Honor Swinton Byrne) in London, and what's clear is that neither idyll seems destined to endure. The former, indeed, is played out across the course of the film in a rather brutally predicable fashion. Fortunately, she encounters tour guide "Callie" (Alia Shawkat) who's getting a bit fed up with the day-in day-out routine with her elderly visitors who just want to say they've "done" the place. Gradually the two start to bond and maybe there's a little light at the end of the tunnel for "Jacqueline"? Both women deliver well enough here, but there are just too many elements missing or under-developed. How did she get here for a start? Too much of her trauma has to be assumed or guessed at and not that I wanted graphic scenes, I did want to know a little more about just what made "Jacqueline" tick. The production is all adequate, and for a while the repetitive photography serves well to illustrate the dead-end nature of her existence, but I just think this missed an opportunity to develop the story of "Jacqueline" a bit more comprehensively.