Chen’s third feature, shot in picturesque Greece with Cynthia Erivo, mostly works as a finely-drawn take on an unlikely friendship between a woman who fled her war-torn country and a somewhat passionless tour guide.
Review #2,627
Dir. Anthony Chen
2023 | France, UK, Greece | Drama | 95 min | English & Greek
Not rated – likely to be M18 for violence, sexual assault and coarse language
Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Alia Shawkat, Ibrahima Ba
Plot: Jacqueline, a young refugee, lands alone and penniless on a Greek island where she tries to survive. While gathering her strength, she begins a friendship with a rootless tour guide and together they find the resilience to forge ahead.
Awards: Official Selection (Sundance)
International Sales: Memento Films
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Self-Discovery; Refugee; Trauma; Unlikely Friendship
Narrative Style: Straightforward
Pace: Slightly Slow
Audience Type: Slightly Arthouse
Viewed: Screener
Spoilers: No
An unexpected detour from Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen, best known for his Cannes Camera d’Or-winning Ilo Ilo (2013), Drift is an example of Chen’s increasing international sensibility and willingness to tell stories that do not always centre on the tiny island nation.
Being a Singaporean myself, it is heartening to see a local filmmaker direct something that feels decidedly European. Trained in the UK, Chen’s work here, however, isn’t surprising to those who have been acquainted with his delicate if quietly powerful style of storytelling.
A slight improvement over the somewhat underwhelming if still serviceable Wet Season (2019), Drift sees Cynthia Erivo (whom I last saw in Steve McQueen’s Widows (2018)) playing Jacqueline who finds herself on a Greek island after fleeing from her war-torn country in Africa.
It’s a straightforward tale of unlikely friendship as she has a chance encounter with a passionless tour guide who becomes her sole source of comfort, though not without some friction.
“What was it like… to live here?”
The drama and performances are finely-drawn even though storytelling-wise there isn’t anything particularly remarkable. (Chen wasn’t on screenplay duty here, if I may add.)
What keeps Drift from falling into some kind of ‘template trap’ that some arthouse films about self-discovery tend to generically follow is its rather nifty editing effort.
Employing stylistic if economical flashbacks and a sound design that seems to float from scene to scene, Drift is like its title—there is a sense of wandering from moment to moment; at the same time, the characters feel adrift, unrooted with a future that is uncertain. Chen’s careful, understated use of music, almost Sakamoto-esque, also helps the film achieve this vibe.
Premiered at Sundance, Drift is a welcome development for a filmmaker whose versatility and confidence in tackling international projects will surely not go unnoticed.
Grade: B
Eternality Tan 
[…] cinema’ scope from tiny Singapore (2013’s Ilo Ilo and 2019’s Wet Season) to Greece (2023’s Drift) and now to the snowy city of Yanji, which is next to the border with North […]
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