Steal Away

As someone who loved Virgo's previous film, Brother, for its intimate and formally complex approach to grief and loss, I was ready to love this movie. All of the pieces are there, and combining psychological with white jealousy, nationalism, and neocolonialism makes sense on paper. It's unfortunate then that this didn't really land for me at all.

Beyond massive pacing and characterization issues, I think this film's biggest problem lies in the premise and tone. It's billed as an afrofuturist psychological thriller, but it's just not scary or tense at all. The characters are so indebted to their symbolic, metatextual connections that anything that would get us invested in the characters as people - motivation, contrast, and personality - feel distant. When the two MCs profess their friendship at the end, I genuinely wondered what actions would lead them to think it at that point. It doesn't feel as contrived or cynical as Saltburn, but Steal Away does a poorer job of utilizing its aesthetic and drama to elicit emotion. If there wasn't an eerie string soundtrack in the background and white people acting weird as hell, I probably would have thought that this was just a horny drama, which honestly, probably would have worked better for the sake of simplicity.

Broadly speaking, plot threads don't neatly weave into one another with clear relevance and a sense of rising action; stuff just kind of happens until the story needs to wrap things up. The resolution to the nationalism/immigration plotline especially feels like an afterthought, and makes me wonder why that story was included in the first place. Once again, beyond metatextual significance, the guards could have been replaced by any other entity, and had the same impact on the story. Details like this make the world building and mise en scène feel replaceable, which generated fatigue by the 80 minute mark and made the rest of the film feel like an hour.

In an insightful Q&A after the film, Virgo mentioned that he wanted to explore a more feminine side of storytelling after the masculinity of Brother. With this being co-written with his wife, that idea seems decent, but I get the sense that Virgo is more comfortable with material that hits closer to home. This is present in both the performances and momentary editing, both of which are more stilted than Brother's weakest moments.

I can appreciate a filmmaker's drive to experiment and push themselves forward. Compared to weak directorial follow-ups like Materialists, I admire his creative influences and exploration of psychosexual horror. There is a genuine interest in engaging with ambitious concepts, and it lacks the self-satisfaction that made Celine Song's film hard to swallow. I just wish that those elements were constructed from the characters more organically.

This film is somewhat mystical and allegorical. Themes include racism, unwelcome migrants, slavery, freedom, overlaid over a teen girl's coming of age and sexual awakening.

The location harkens of Belgium, one of the two countries of production. Whites are in power, and Blacks are servants / hired help. White soldiers patrol the streets, Black migrants are unwelcome, and may be abducted and disappeared - maybe a premonition of the current U. S.

Reachable by foot from the town, thru a small forest, is an estate and mansion, where a White family lives. Mistress of house is Florence, who lives there with her mother, a man of unspecified relationship, and Florence's 16-year-old daughter Fanny. Unable to have children after Fanny, but desiring more (especially girls), she has a continuing project of bringing in single mothers with daughters, none of whom seem to stay for long.

The latest couple are from Congo. The mother went to work in the kitchen, and lives apart from the daughter Cécile. Cécile is assigned to live in the personal servant's room next to Fanny's room, and quickly get hunky groundskeeper Rufus as her boyfriend. Fanny bonds with her, adopts her culture (hairstyle, etc.), and spies on her and Rufus, yearning for her own experiences. But as Florence's health declines, Fanny has to grow up and take on responsibilities.

There is a suggestion that Cécile and her mother should at some point "go north", and indeed are encouraged by a friendly driver to "steal away" and do so. It seems that "North" represents freedom and security, and harkens to Canada, the other country of production. There are echoes of the Underground Railroad in the 1800s U. S., or the current situation, where migrants desiring Canada may risk transiting the U. S. One disappoitment is that Fanny does not appear to go to school, or get private tutoring.

I saw this film at the World Premiere at Toronto International Film Festival, with director and cast Q+A. An antelope that occasionally appears in the forest symbolizes freedom. Congo was conceived before Belgium came into the picture, the two being related by colonization, exploitation, and abuses. The Q+A somewhat helped me understand the film, and added one point to my rating.