The Flood (2020) | Film Review

Immigration is one of the more difficult subjects to broach in today’s environment, as passions are high at either end of the spectrum for varying reasons. Tackling the topic in a film is even more taxing, as too often the filmmakers take a rather heavy-handed approach to driving their point-of-view home. Using the script as a hammer when a nerf gun would suffice. Walking into director Anthony Woodley’s The Flood, I was resigned for a similar approach. Instead, we are treated to a riveting thriller which masks an intelligent conversation on the immigrant experience.

As an immigration officer for the United Kingdom, Wendy (Lena Headey) is tasked with vetting any refugees seeking asylum to determine if they deserve protected status. If not, they will instead be deported back to their country of origin. When Wendy’s quota-limit hungry boss Philip (fellow Game of Thrones alum, Iain Glen) assigns her to Haile (Ivanno Jeremiah), it should be a slam dunk for denial.

Haile is a man who has crossed the border illegally via lorry, and then attacked a police officer once discovered. For a government that seeks to minimize refugee exposure, Haile’s case to remain in the UK appears nonexistent. As Wendy peels back the layers, an underlying truth emerges that Haile is hiding something that could potentially alter their stance. Can she arrive at the truth in time?

When we first meet Wendy, she’s the overworked government employee stereotype films love to employ: divorced, struggling to maintain a personal connection to her child, nips at the spirits a bit too heavily, etc. These are the parts lesser actors falter in religiously, succumbing to weak clichés and a heavily furrowed brow. Thankfully, Headey is not a lesser actor.

Lena Headey is known for creating more out of less, making an otherwise insignificant moment pop, and here is no exception. Wendy would not even be considered a lead by many standards – the film’s overall arc firmly belongs to Haile – yet Headey seizes every opportunity to use her trademark facial tics and hyper-focused posturing to elevate Wendy to a place of understanding for the audience. Headey does not need endless exposition revolving around Wendy’s life to explain her current situation, what happened with her marriage or her child, as Headey’s performance works overtime to utilize physical characteristics to fill in the gaps with her textbook nuance.

All that stated, this film is truly about Haile. Not simply Ivanno Jeremiah’s character, but this composite of Haile as the embodiment of scores of immigrants and refugees seeking a better life, safely obscured from the view of persecution. Helen Kingston’s script uses Haile’s asylum meetings with Wendy to invoke a Usual Suspects approach to the story, as Haile fills in each section of his plight through flashbacks which build to the ultimate reveal of what actually happened on that lorry. Political commentary masked as a thriller basking in the moonlight of mystery.

From his admitted act of treason by fleeing both his Eritrea homeland and military duties, to his budding kinship with a couple at a French refugee camp, The Flood is far more concerned with Haile’s plight than domestic politics. At the film’s center is Ivanno Jeremiah’s performance, injecting Haile with a depth of warmth, tragedy, and humanity which immediately welcomes the audience to his side of the aisle. We see Haile’s story through his eyes, and this is where the power of Kingston’s script truly comes alive.

As we follow Haile from moment-to-moment, at no point does the film degrade into politicizing or grandstanding, preaching to all about the filmmaker’s personal stance on immigration reform. Instead, Kingston and Woodley simply allow Haile’s journey to unfold naturally and quietly, building the tension as they go, which encourages us to simply strap in and empathize with the ride.

The Flood takes a combustible topic and weaves into its structure the comforts of a modern thriller, affording the audience with the opportunity to indulge in a bit of political discourse without an overbearing moral lesson weighing it down. This is the way all films with a message should be told.