Film Spotlight: “Dreamers”, A Bold, Personal Portrait of Asylum and Identity
Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, the Nigerian-British filmmaker behind acclaimed works like Blue Story and Boxing Day, is releasing her directorial debut feature, Dreamers, a semi-autobiographical love story set in an immigration detention centre. The film draws heavily from her own experience seeking asylum in the UK as a young adult.
Background and Inspiration
Gharoro-Akpojotor says the film is “loosely based” on her own asylum journey. At 25, she applied for asylum in the UK, though she was not detained, she vividly remembers the fear and uncertainty surrounding the process.
Some of the scenes in Dreamers, especially the asylum interviews, are almost verbatim from her experience: she was asked invasive and uninformed questions such as whether there is a “Brighton in Nigeria,” or to name a gay bar in London, or to detail her sexual history, despite the fact that the caseworker had never read her file.
Story & Themes
The film centres on a Nigerian woman, Isio (played by Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo), who is placed in a UK removal centre after fleeing persecution for her sexuality. As she awaits a decision on her asylum claim, she meets another detainee, Farah (played by Ann Akinjirin), and the two form a deep bond that grows into a romantic relationship.
Although the setting is bleak, housed in bureaucracy, fear, and the threat of deportation, the film refuses to depict refugees as one-dimensional victims. Gharoro-Akpojotor gives her characters intellect, agency, humanity, and hope, focusing on love, resilience, identity and the struggle for dignity.
Creative Approach and Impact
Through her production company, Joi Productions, Gharoro-Akpojotor has made a point of telling stories centred on Black, female, and LGBTQ+ experiences, sometimes overlapping. “Dreamers” continues that mission, using poetic visuals and intimate storytelling to build empathy and challenge prevailing stereotypes about migrants and asylum seekers.
Despite its heavy themes, the film balances pain with warmth. There are moments of friendship, solidarity, love, and even humour, as Isio and Farah, both educated women, share philosophical debates. This grounding in realism gives the story emotional depth and relatability.
Release & Significance
Dreamers had its world premiere earlier this year at the Berlin film festival. Its UK release is scheduled for 5 December 2025.
The film arrives at a time of intense public debate about immigration and asylum policies in the UK, making its message about compassion, humanity, and the lived experiences behind asylum applications especially timely.
“Dreamers” is more than a film, it’s a personal testimony turned into art. By transforming her own vulnerability into storytelling, Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor invites audiences to see asylum seekers not as statistics or problems, but as full human beings, deserving of dignity, love, and a chance at hope.’He asked me what I’d done sexually with a woman’: how Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor turned her asylum grilling into a film.