Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: STEAL AWAY [Toronto International Film Festival 2025 - Toronto, Canada]
The idea of utopia of what might be or what could have been is at the center of "Steal Away" [Special Presentations] which follows a girl Fanny (Angourie Rice) whose mother Florence (Lauren Lee Smith) runs a household of sorts, with no male head of household. There seems to be an influx of immigrants coming in including Cecile (Mallori Johnson) and her mother who seem to have come from the Congo to find a better life. The time functions where it could be an aftermath of something like the Civil War in Europe where the separation of class and race is specific but the concept of "the help" is not in place though there is a sense of indentured servitude which is hard to escape from. Florence bathes her goodwill in a sense of wanting to give girls she brings to her country a better life (and give them work). And yet the underlying irony of the story is based in the fact of her infertility. However, her ultimate goal is interestingly skewed though it does make sense in her warped practical viewpoint of the world. Fanny doesn't come from that school of thinking and yet her progression is based on how she sees and understands her mother.
Fanny's mother brings in Cecile's mother (along with Cecile) whom she believes can find a holistic solution to her problem. Fanny though sees how free Cecile is in her identity and culture and also how one of the local workers attaches to her. Fanny wants to feel that longing in a way but she doesn't know the underlying narrative which is eventually revealed. Eventually Fanny must make a decision but what is interesting that happens is that she goes through a progression of identity where she makes up her hair like Cecile and goes through the villages (which has a feeling of maybe a smaller version of Old World New Orleans) and tries to live that way. It is never made abundantly clear where this is set though the relation to the Congo might have it also placed in South Africa (though it does make reference to Europe in an alternate timeline). But the possibility of South Africa definitely makes sense and adds another layer to the film. The third act carries a balance of knowing as the reality of what is lying under the surface becomes clear. The solution is almost stuck in time with the narrative though it makes sense because the sins of the past sometimes become the sins of the future. However the film also wants to reflect a more open thinking for a brighter tomorrow despite the questions that the film smartly brings up. B
By Tim Wassberg
