Home-grown director Anthony Chen’s first English-language feature film Drift is set to open exclusively at The Projector, following its Sundance Film Festival world premiere!
Starring two-time Academy Award nominee Cynthia Erivo (Harriet, Wicked) and Screen Actors Guild Award-winner Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development, The Final Girl), Drift is an adaptation of Alexander Maksik’s New York Times Notable Book "A Marker to Measure Drift" that paints a tender portrait of a refugee’s journey to reclaim her life from the clutches of survivor’s guilt.
Jacqueline has fled war-torn Libera and found herself on the beaches of Greece. Callie has left America to scratch out an existence as a tour guide. When the two have a chance encounter, they begin to forge a kinship that will heal them both.
In an interview with Deadline, Chen explains:
Whenever I make a film, I feel the need to be really honest with the subject matter, but especially when you’re making a film about a black African woman, who’s a refugee, because there’s so much baggage to it… It’s not about being politically correct, it’s about being honest to the human experience.
Drift, Chen’s first English-language feature film, was the recipient of the prestigious ICFT-Unesco Gandhi Medal at the 54th International Film Festival of India last year. The award is presented to a film that advocates for peace and non-violence, with Drift beating out nine other international nominees to obtain it. The same month, the film also won the Fipresci Prize and the Jury Prize at the Festival International de Cinema d’Auteur de Rabat in Morocco.
Variety’s Peter Debruge calls the film “an unlikely ode to healing and human connection”, while Jessica Kiang describes Chen’s signature directorial style as “a graceful, lucid classicism, a mode that in its straightforward sincerity is not fashionable in our abrasive moment, but can yield significant satisfactions.”
Black creativity and news outlet Blavity wrote:
It may seem like your run-of-the-mill, ‘Black refugee struggles building a life in Europe tale,’ but the film is much more than that. Director Anthony Chen is able to find new and engaging ways to tell Jacqueline’s story, finding the heart and universality in it.
See Drift exclusively at The Projector when it opens 4 April.