Top 200 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2023: #101. Anthony Chen’s Drift

Drift

The second 2023 Anthony Chen film on our list (the other being The Breaking Ice at the #191 spot) is definitely more indie and working with an international conflux. Starring Cynthia Erivo, Alia Shawkat, Ibrahima Ba and Honor Swinton-Byrne, this book to film project was filmed in Greece in May of last year. Based on the book A Marker to Measure Drift, Drift is about relocating, escaping, surviving but never truly getting away. Susanne Farrell and Alexander Maksik adapted the screenplay.

Gist: Drift follows a young Liberian refugee named Jacqueline (Erivo) who has barely escaped her war-torn country to a Greek island. She offers massages to tourists in exchange for one or two euros to battle her hunger, while her daily struggle for survival keeps the memories that haunt her at bay. She meets an unmoored tour guide (Shawkat) and the two become close as they each find hope in the other.

Release Date/Prediction: This was selected for the Sundance Film Festival – Premieres section.