Dreamers review: A vital, timely drama about the migrant experience
Dreamers is one of those films that I consider a force for good. Everyone should see this film and be educated about life inside immigrant removal centres and see how they feel about migrants afterwards.
In Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor’s tender drama, Ronke Adékoluẹjo plays Isio, a Nigerian migrant who is caught working illegally in the U.K. and sent to Hatchworth Removal Centre, where she awaits the outcome of her asylum request. During her time at the centre, Isio befriends fellow migrants Nana (Diana Yekinni) and Atefeh (Aiysha Hart) and starts to fall for her roommate Farah (Ann Akinjirin).
Isio is naive and has hope in the system, whereas the other three have been there for a while and know better. They open her eyes to how it all works, and over time, her faith in the process wavers, and she starts to consider alternative options. Isio is the audience’s eyes, and through her, we gain insight into what these centres are like inside, the different reasons why people are there and what the asylum process is like.
Dreamers feels more relevant and important now than ever because immigration always seems to be in the news and on politicians’ lips. This is just one specific, fictional story, but it should give every viewer more empathy for these four and perhaps more migrants as a result. We get to see those inside these centres as real people instead of, to quote the film, “poor hopeless immigrants” (or worse).
I adored the friendship between the four and how it evolved through the film, and I was floored by Adékoluẹjo and Akinjirin’s performances, particularly during their emotional monologue scenes. However, I wasn’t fully convinced by the romance between Isio and Farah. It didn’t feel totally developed, like it needed a bit more time to build that depth of feeling. The film is only 1 hour and 20 minutes, and it should have been about 10 minutes longer to work on that core relationship more. Also, there were some weird, surreal moments that I found odd, and I felt a bit shafted by the deliberately provocative and frustrating ending.
While it’s not perfect, Gharoro-Akpojotor’s Dreamers is a vital film that humanises migrants. I hope everybody gets a chance to see it and maybe come away with a different view on the migrant experience.
Seen at the London Film Festival. In cinemas from Friday 5th December
Read my interview with the Dreamers team here