What to know
- Clement Virgo’s Steal Away opens in theatres on July 17, including select Toronto cinemas.
- The film is loosely adapted from historian Karolyn Smardz Frost’s nonfiction book Steal Away Home.
- Frost’s book recounts how 15-year-old Cecelia Reynolds escaped slavery in 1846, crossed into Ontario and eventually settled in Toronto.
- Virgo and co-writer Tamara Faith Berger move the story into an ambiguous, dreamlike world centred on the unequal relationship between Fanny and Cécile.
- The film stars Angourie Rice, Mallori Johnson, Lauren Lee Smith and Idrissa Sanogo Bamba.
When you learn that Clement Virgo’s new film Steal Away, opening in theatres today (July 17), was inspired by the real-life relationship between two young girls in the 1800s, a Black slave and her white owner, and the Canadian connection — as you’re learning now — you’ll want to pick up the book, Steal Away Home: One Woman’s Epic Flight to Freedom – And Her Long Road Back to the South, by historian Karolyn Smardz Frost.
But first, go see the film. It’s screening in Toronto at TIFF Lightbox, Cineplex Eglinton Town Centre, Cineplex Morningside, and Cineplex Winston Churchill & VIP.
In real life, Cecelia escaped to Canada in 1846, married her rescuer, and lived in Toronto. She wrote to Fanny for over two decades, trying to liberate her mother and brother. When her husband died, she returned to Kentucky and resumed her complicated friendship with Fanny, who lived a few blocks away.
Taking immense liberties with the true story, as he’s already made a film adaptation of a book, The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, Virgo co-wrote the Steal Away screenplay with his wife, Tamara Faith Berger, focusing on the girls’ relationship within an ambiguous transhistorical setting.
The first words on the screen, against a starry black galaxy are: “Once upon a time, young women traveled to a strange and ruthless land. It was a stop on their way to freedom…”
Further explaining the plot, the film is summed up on its Instagram page as: “Lust & jealousy blossom as young African traveler, Cécile, arrives at the home of Fanny, an awkward girl sequestered in a bubble of wealth.”
Take away the underlying racism, classism, power imbalance and anti-migrant sentiment in the storyline and it’s about two girls liking the same boy — one gets him; one is a little crazy, hence the “psychological thriller” billing, as well as other story elements that we won’t spoil.
The female leads are captivating, Australian Angourie Rice (Mean Girls, Spider-Man) as Fanny, awkward and inexperienced, who is captivated and jealous of Cécile, played by American newcomer Mallori Johnson. In their clear imbalance of wealth and station, Cécile is unhappy and lonely, living in a dysfunctional household. Although from a privileged family, she wants desperately to be part of Fanny’s world and knows the anti-migrant policies are unjust. She’s a complicated character, creepy but likeable, played superbly with a multitude of different emotions.
The cast also includes Vancouver’s Lauren Lee Smith (The Shape of Water, Mutant X, The L Word, Lie With Me) as Fanny’s mom and Idrissa Sanogo Bamba (The Boys, The Fire Inside) as Cecile’s boyfriend.
Steal Away is going head-to-head with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, an adaptation of Homer’s epic poem, but whichever one you choose to see first made sure to pick up the books.
