Steal Away is the kind of movie that sneaks up on you. And by the time that you realize what’s actually happening, your left feeling disturbed, angry, and sad all at the same time. Because a movie like Steal Away isn’t too far off from our reality. So as a viewer, I had a little trouble immersing myself in this movie because of the echoes of it that I can see in our actual world.
At the center of Steal Away are two young women living vastly different lives. You have Cécile (Mallori Johnson), a refugee moving into a stately manor house alongside her mother. We’re not really sure what they’re running from in their country or where this manor is. But they are escaping from something bad enough that they needed to leave everything behind to start fresh.
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That fresh start just so happens to lead Cécile to Fanny (Angourie Rice). She’s the daughter of the woman who helped arrange Cécile’s move to this “seemingly” safe place. And right from the jump, Fanny is weird. She is clearly obsessed with Cécile. And there’s this disturbing power imbalance that Fanny isn’t aware of but Cécile is where Fanny treats Cecile like a shiny new toy that she can imprint on, copy her hair and clothes, and tell her secrets to without considering Cécile wants to hear them in the first place.
While vastly different from each other, these two young women don’t get lost in each other in Steal Away. That’s the most important thing to remember about this charged film. Fanny is clearly obsessed with Cécile. But Cécile isn’t painted as an unfortunate victim of Fanny’s whims. And Cécile’s strength, independence, and unwavering spirit makes her an infinitely more relatable character in comparison to Fanny.
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And I know it feels like I’m dumping on Fanny over and over again. In a way I am. She lives in this blissful ignorance that feels like the Antebellum South where everything is butterflies and rainbows to her while everyone else is suffering and being treated like nothing but outsiders and trash because they’re immigrants. Women like Fanny are part of the problem when it comes to oppression. Their willful ignorance to the privileges that they have keep them safe. But it’s on the backs of others.
I will say this one positive thing about Fanny though.
When it came down to it, when things got bad, she was there for Cécile. It could have been because they formed a sisterly bond. But it also could be because of the psychosexual aspect of Steal Away. Previously we included this movie in a list of LGBTQ+ movies to watch out for at TIFF 2025. And while the movie doesn’t get explicit between these two, Fanny is definitely having an awakening within herself because of the attraction she has to Cécile.
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But again, Cécile doesn’t suffer because of Fanny’s whims or discoveries. Fanny has her journey and so does Cécile. Neither are used to prop up the other’s story while leaving the other behind. That’s one of the main reasons why I didn’t just dump Fanny and fast-forward to the Cécile bits. Fanny wasn’t more important than Cécile. And Cécile wasn’t more important than Fanny. They were just two girls from very different worlds.
By the end of Steal Away, when all the twists and turns were revealed, I was bamboozled and sad. There were some plot points and sequences I still didn’t understand by the end. But at the heart of the story, I could understand the pain and suffering that is imposed on those considered disposable by those in power. It’s a keystone of Steal Away and also one of our present reality. And while I’m aware of this power dynamic and the pain that comes with it, there are plenty of women like Fanny that aren’t.
And they need to wake up.
Steal Away screened at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
