Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
Trauma and aftermath
MARIA DUARTE recommends a brutally honest drama which provides a fresh look at the lives of refugees
Cynthia Erivo as Jacqueline in Drift [IMDb]

Drift (15)
Directed by Anthony Chen


HOW do you deal with the loss of identity and how do you begin to rebuild it and cope with trauma? Those are some of the questions at the heart of this brutally honest drama which provides a fresh look at the lives of refugees. 

The film follows a young woman from Liberia Jacqueline (Cynthia Erivo) who has escaped her war-torn country and ended up on a Greek island where she is struggling to survive and come to terms with her past. She is at drift in body and mind until she meets US tour guide Callie (Alia Shawkat) and a friendship blossoms. This results in the two women saving each other. 

It is based on Alexander Maksik’s novel, A Marker to Measure Drift, which he adapted for the big screen with Susanne Farrell. The film, directed by Anthony Chen, presents a character that we have not seen before. Jacqueline is a refugee from an affluent and privileged background who has fallen from grace as the flashbacks to her life in Liberia and London show. They also depict a fun-loving extrovert who is the antithesis to the shell of the person she has become: introverted and distrustful of everyone. She sleeps in a cave on the beach and steals sugar sachets from cafes for sustenance because she is penniless, and has to resort to offering tourists on the beach foot massages for money. 

Erivo, who produced and wrote, and performs a song in Drift, gives the performance of her career alongside Shawkat who is equally impressive. This is a slow-burning drama with a harrowing reveal when Jacqueline finally breaks down in front of Callie while she is having a bath. As she describes the way her family were tortured and callously gunned down by child soldiers it makes for a particularly hard watch. This invisible woman is finally seen and in doing so Erivo delivers a heartbreaking turn. 

It also shows the importance of human connection and kindness in a quietly powerful and restrained tale. It will hopefully stop people judging refugees and see them in a humane light. 

Out in cinemas March 29.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
VALENTINE'S DAY BLUES: (L) Memoir Of A Snail; (R) Bridget Jo
Cinema / 13 February 2025
13 February 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE review Cottontail, Memoir of a Snail, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, and Captain America: Brave New World
(L) Bilal Hasna in Leyla; (R) Thomasin McKenzie and James in
Cinema / 21 November 2024
21 November 2024
A bucket-list of visuals, the unsung heroine of IVF, queer love in the City of London, and half a musical: The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Blink, Joy, Layla and Wicked
(L) Juliette Gariepy in Red Rooms; (R) Morfydd Clark in Star
Cinema / 5 September 2024
5 September 2024
Yorkshire chills, tangled in the dark web, pregnancy diaries and brackish juice: MARIA DUARTE reviews Starve Acre, Red Rooms, My First Film and Beetlejuice
(L) Naomie Ackie in Blink Twice; (R) Karen Martinez in Cadej
Cinema / 22 August 2024
22 August 2024
Gangs, flat champagne, nightmare island and completely cuckoo: the Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews new releases Cadejo Blanco, Widow Clicquot, Blink Twice and Cuckoo