The Flood review: Lena Headey moves on from Game of Thrones with careful, studied portrait of refugee crisis

In a culture where refugees are rarely shown any empathy in mainstream media, the balanced tone of ‘The Flood’ is exactly the kind of film that might actually change a few minds

Dir: Anthony Woodley. Starring: Lena Headey, Ivanno Jeremiah, Iain Glen, Mandip Gill, Arsher Ali. Cert 15, 99 mins

Lena Headey has taken her first steps into a Game of Thrones-less future. It’s time to say goodbye to Cersei and hello to, presumably, her pick of Hollywood’s hottest projects. Pleasingly, Headey’s first movie to be released since the fantasy saga came to an end has not only seen her return to her roots in the British film industry, but invest in a topic that’s dear to her own heart.

The Flood, directed by Anthony Woodley, is a call for empathy when it comes to the refugee crisis. Headey plays Wendy, whose cold, detached manner has made her a model employee at the immigration centre, as she speeds through applications and always keeps to her quota. She’s the first choice to process Haile (Ivanno Jeremiah)’s case. An asylum seeker from Eritrea, he was arrested in his first day in the UK, after attacking the police officer who discovered him hiding in the back of a lorry. With the headline “Attacker Seeks Asylum” blasted across the front pages, the government is keen for Haile’s swift deportation so it can score points for the upcoming election. Wendy is only further hurried by her own boss (Headey’s Game of Thrones co-star Iain Glen), who wants things wrapped up by coffee time. Yet, she finds herself moved by Haile’s story in a way she never could have expected, discovering that individuals cannot be reduced down to headlines. Through their encounter, The Flood presents us with a careful, studied portrait of one of the most incendiary topics of modern politics.

Woodley, alongside the film’s screenwriter Helen Kingston and producer Luke Healey, spent time volunteering in the Calais Jungle, where so many asylum seekers have been forced to make camp, with little hope of continuing on to the UK and threatened with death if they return to the countries they’ve fled. Headey herself has been involved with the International Rescue Committee for years and has similarly spent time with refugee families. The film draws its energy from these collaborators and their own personal investment, with Kingston’s screenplay taking direct inspiration from the stories of those she met in the camp. Not only has The Flood been heavily researched, but it also offers us a rare glimpse of what goes on behind closed doors during the immigration process.

Understandably, the film does, at times, betray its outsider perspective. What we gain in factual accuracy, we maybe lose in our closeness to Haile himself, who, despite Jeremiah’s committed performance, is painted purely to be the film’s tragic hero – someone noble and exemplary enough to melt Wendy’s ice-cold heart, despite the fact that every refugee’s story is filled with incredible risk, determination and sacrifice. The film also makes Wendy as sympathetic a character as possible. Headey brings a deep sadness to her character’s hollow expressions, in a way that immediately hints at a depressing backstory that we can only do our best to piece together from the smallest of clues: the vodka in her water bottle or a phone call to her estranged daughter at 3am in order to read her a bedtime story. On the one hand, The Flood lacks any righteous anger towards the governments that have shown such callousness towards refugees, but it’s clear that the film’s philosophy, at heart, is to put a sense of humanity above all things. One of the film’s most poignant moments arrives when Haile realises that, 9,000km into his journey, he’s been isolated and demeaned to the point that he’s forgotten his own name.

Certainly, The Flood relies on the occasional emotional shortcut – some moments are shot like a blood-pumping thriller, while the film’s ending is too neat to feel realistic – but there’s a clear and admirable motivation behind all this. Its recognisable faces and familiar narrative beats, coupled with a measured, balanced tone is exactly the kind of film that might actually change a few minds. Perhaps The Flood isn’t quite the urgent, profound film a crisis of this scale deserves, but in a culture where refugees are so rarely shown any empathy in mainstream media, maybe this is the film we need right now.

The Flood is released in UK cinemas on 21 June