Refugee Week: Dreamers + Q&A

Refugee Week and the University of Southampton invites you to a free screening of Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor’s Dreamers (2025) at Harbour Lights Picturehouse cinema in Southampton.

After fleeing persecution at home, Nigerian migrant Isio (Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́) is sent to Hatchworth Removal Centre, where she hopes her asylum plea will receive a fair hearing. Isio believes the only way out is to play by the rules, even when her charismatic new roommate, Farah (Ann Akinjirin), warns her otherwise. In the confines of detention, Farah’s friendship brings colour to Isio’s world. As their unexpected bond blossoms into romance, Isio must decide whether to continue trusting in a broken system that threatens to tear them apart or dare to follow Farah into a risky plan that could cost them everything.

Acclaimed producer Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor’s (Blue Story, Boxing Day) visually bold and deeply moving directorial debut is a tender story of defiance, which insists that love can endure even in the most hostile places.

The film will be followed by a panel discussion featuring poet and activist, Loraine Mponela, Agnes Tanho who will speak about her experience of the UK immigration detention system, and Nikki Walters, Chair of Southampton Action, a community organisation supporting refugees, asylum seekers and other vulnerable groups in Southampton and further afield. It will be followed by a public Q&A.