by Tim Gordon
History and imagination collide in Clement Virgo’s Steal Away, a bold adaptation of Karolyn Smardz Frost’s Steal Away Home. Part coming-of-age tale, part social allegory, the film explores how identity, desire, and belonging take shape under pressure in a Belgium that mirrors the shadows of the American South. What begins as a seemingly small story of teenage curiosity evolves into a layered meditation on power, race, and resilience.
At the heart is Fanny (Angourie Rice), a quiet Belgian teenager adrift in the liminal space between childhood and adulthood. Surrounded by peers who tease her and unable to find her voice, Fanny discovers a spark of life in Cécile (Mallori Johnson), the vibrant daughter of a Congolese caretaker who tends to her ailing mother. Where Fanny is hesitant and unsure, Cécile radiates charisma, confidence, and cultural grounding. Their bond begins with curiosity but grows into something more complicated a mix of admiration, envy, and awakening that pushes Fanny to confront her own desires and identity.
Much of the film’s electricity comes from Johnson’s performance. After her breakout in Kindred, where she balanced vulnerability with quiet strength in a time-travel horror steeped in racial trauma, Johnson proves here that she’s more than just a rising star she’s a presence you can’t look away from. She imbues Cécile with a layered duality: at once playful and magnetic, yet fiercely protective of her culture and family. Every look, every pause carries meaning, whether she’s disarming a situation with charm or silently bristling at Fanny’s naive attempts at connection. If Rice gives the film its searching heart, Johnson gives it its pulse.
Virgo handles this dynamic with care, highlighting how easily admiration can blur into appropriation. Fanny’s fascination with Cécile’s culture and vitality is both tender and fraught, leading to moments of awkwardness, longing, and even betrayal. Johnson never lets Cécile become a symbol or mere object of fascination; she is a full, grounded human being, and her agency within the story becomes its moral compass.
The film’s second half shifts into sharper, more urgent territory. As Fanny navigates her sexual identity, the looming threat of authorities rounding up refugees heightens the stakes, placing Cécile and her family in real danger. Virgo widens the lens, using African iconography and Belgium’s political climate to ground this personal story in broader themes of survival and displacement. By the final act, Steal Away transforms into something more empowering a testament to friendship, resilience, and the quiet heroism of women who labor in silence.
Clement Virgo’s aesthetic is bold, searching, and unafraid to tackle uncomfortable truths, infusing the film with texture and urgency. While not flawless in pacing, the movie consistently surprises, refusing to settle for neat answers or easy sentiment.
In the end, Steal Away isn’t just about a teenager’s awakening or a refugee’s struggle; it’s about the fragile but profound connections that reshape lives. Anchored by Johnson’s luminous performance the kind that cements her as one of the most exciting young talents working today, the film is stirring, provocative, and deeply human.
Grade: B
