Director Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor’s feature debut has no intentions of shrinking away from the political spotlight. The story revolves around Isio (Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo), a Nigerian immigrant who is detained after she’s caught working illegally in the UK. Striking up a friendship with fellow detainee Farah (Ann Akinjirin), which grows into something more intimate, Isio is forced to make a choice between complying with the rules, even as her asylum pleas are rejected, and escaping in pursuit of freedom.
Gharoro-Akpojoto doesn’t pull her punches. From the first scenes, she portrays the harsh reality confronting immigrants. For many of us, the obvious comparison is the school playground. That is our empathy foothold, but Dreamers leaves us to contemplate how Isio’s reality is one many of us will never have to experience. In fact, the film feels right at home in the prison movie sub-genre. It appropriates familiar tropes ,from the intimidating power structures, both among the detainees and the guards, the explosive threat of intimidation and violence as well as the aspirations for freedom.
With a keen eye for detail, Gharoro-Akpojoto observes Isio’s milieu through her interactions. On Isio’s arrival, the guard reels off verbal instructions and advice in a detached tone, conveying the weariness of the wider system. Then Isio’s series of interviews that will decide the outcome of her asylum request are indifferent towards the risks posed to her if she returns to her native home, where homosexuality has been criminalised.
Throughout, Gharoro-Akpojoto guides her audience to recognise the inherent fractures of a system built on apathy. The director takes a similar approach in moments with her characters by emphasising a silent look or expression. And yet, in other moments, she drifts from this approach and is guilty of overwriting. The characters abruptly begin to tell a story as opposed to live an experience, and the flashbacks to Isio’s trauma, which are shoehorned in, disrupt the narrative flow. At 80-minutes, Dreamers is relatively brief. The runtime squeezes the narrative too tightly and the audience rarely gets time to sit with the characters. Instead, Isio and Farah are swept up in a movie that progresses too quickly, and denies their experiences the opportunity to resonate as loud and clear as they should.
Dreamers is out in cinemas on Friday, November 5th. On BFI Player on January 19th (2026).
