Dreamers Film Review: Humanity & Hope  

Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor’s Dreamers seeks to give grace to the immigrant experience in a political climate that refuses to do so.

Dreamers tells the story of Isio (Ronkę Adékoluęjo, of Chevalier), a Nigerian migrant who has been living undocumented in the UK for the past two years. After handing herself in to try and go about immigrating into the UK legally, Isio is sent to the Hatchworth Removal Centre to await an asylum hearing. Isio came to the UK after her mother found out she was lesbian. In her home country of Nigeria, expressions of homosexuality and same-sex relationships are illegal. While extremely anxious about her impending hearing, Isio has total faith in the system and believes her circumstances and case are adequate cause for her to remain in the UK. 

When Isio enters Hatchworth, she is introduced to her roommate Farah (Ann Akinjirin, of Moon Knight) who has been at the center for a while and is on her last appeal to seek asylum. While Isio is determined to keep to herself with the sole intent of getting through the asylum hearing process, Farah shows Isio there is a life to be lived at Hatchworth and it’s a life worth opening her eyes to. 

As Farah pulls Isio out of her shell, Isio begins to open up to the community at Hatchworth and understand the brutal truths and difficulties that come with trying to seek asylum, no matter what your circumstances may be. After Isio becomes acclimated in the community at the center, Farah and their friends let her in on their plan to escape. Isio is torn between trying her luck with the legal asylum-seeking process and taking her fate into her own hands for once. 

Dreamers lends an empathetic perspective to a group of people who are often spoken of in the news as statistics rather than people. It gives grace and nuance to the migrant experience in a way that it truly needs at this time. Isio, Farah and the other women at Hatchworth are multi-dimensional: we see their pain, but we also witness their strength. 

The power of the film lies in the relationships these women at Hatchworth are able to develop. While the thought of migrant removal centers seems inherently devastating, Dreamers shows a group of women who are able to make a joyous and meaningful life in the most difficult of circumstances. Their laughter, jokes and friendship carry them through the most difficult times of their lives. 

As Isio arrives at Hatchworth she is frantic and disoriented, being given a tour by an apathetic guard. When she gets to her room and meets Farah, she immediately notices her roommate is not just calm, but charismatic. The chaos and fear Isio feels doesn’t seem to be able to penetrate Farah’s cool demeanor. Farah serves as the perfect guide to navigating the asylum-seeking process because she hasn’t let the looming possibility of deportation close her off to finding joy in her life. 

It is clear writer/director Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor did not create Dreamers to make a story about the impossibly difficult-to-navigate bureaucratic labyrinth that is the immigration process. She wanted to make a film about strength, resilience, hope and, above all else, love. Whether it be the relationship that blossomed between Isio and Farah or the friendships that allowed Isio to understand she needs to open her eyes to see the joys in the life she is living, love carries Isio through this movie. 

While Dreamers serves as a unique character study, highlighting voices that are normally looked over, it does have its faults. The love story that unfolds in the migrant removal center puts the development of this relationship on an extremely accelerated timeline. Isio needs time to warm up to Farah and the love she has to offer but is guarded because her sexuality is something she has always had to suppress.

While it is understandable why their relationship needed to develop quickly given the timeframe of the story, there is an overwhelming feeling their coupling would have felt more impactful if it had been given more time to mature. 

Even on a more general level, the timeframe the story takes place over is the biggest issue the film faces. There is a clear effort put forth to show time in Hatchworth exists on its own accord, with Gharoro-Akpojotor showing it as a purgatory of sorts as these women anxiously wait to hear their fate. However, while this is not a movie about the logistics and inner workings of these centers, it would have been beneficial to understand the timeframe of the appeal process and how long these women have spent together. 

By the time the film has ended, you are not quite sure how long has passed, how quickly Isio was able to assimilate to life in the center, or which appeal she would have been on at this point in the asylum-seeking process. The movie’s undeniable strength is the nuance given to its characters and the relationships developed between them, but not giving the audience even a loose understanding of how long Isio and Farah have been fighting for their freedom does a disservice to the plot itself. 

While Gharoro-Akpojotor has been acknowledged for her outstanding efforts as a producer, earning her a spot as one of the BAFTA 2020 Breakthrough honorees, Dreamers is her debut feature. The story of Isio is inspired by Gharoro-Akpojotor’s own asylum-seeking journey. She wanted to tell a story that put people at the forefront of the immigration experience rather than the narratives that typically dominate the topic.

Gharoro-Akpojotor’s powerful debut feature is the type of story the world needs most right now. Dreamers, above all else, is a film about hope and humanity. The hope for a better future and the power of giving empathy to those whose stories you may never truly understand. It’s the type of compassionate, personal filmmaking that allows people to see the Isios and Farahs of the world in a completely different light.

Dreamers premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on February 18-23, 2025. Read our Berlin Film Festival reviews!