Film Review: Continental Drift (South) (La Dérive Des Continents, Au Sud)
by Diana Schnelle

CONTINENTAL DRIFT (SOUTH) (LA DÉRIVE DES CONTINENTS, AU SUD)
Lionel Baier, Switzerland, France 2022

This fantastic satire lampoons the bureaucracy of the European Union (EU) and the way it functions (or doesn’t), zeroing in on the migrant crisis Europe has faced in recent years. What makes CONTINENTAL DRIFT (SOUTH) so impressive is the way that director Lionel Baier blends together macro- and micro-level stories of crisis, embodying the idea that “the personal is political.”

Nathalie Adler (Isabelle Carré) is working in Sicily as a European Commission liaison officer, connecting the refugee camps the EU finances and the top-level politicians who are coming to observe them. She’s helping organize an ostensibly surprise visit that is actually being meticulously crafted. When the advance team from the offices of Chancellor Merkel and President Macron arrive, they cynically demand that Nathalie make the refugee camp look worse, so that their leaders will seem responsible for improvements when they return a few weeks later. German bureaucrat Ute (Ursina Lardi) is among those who arrive with Merkel’s team, and she turns out to be an old lover of Nathalie’s. While the women jostle to find new footing, Nathalie’s personal situation is further complicated by the unexpected arrival of her young adult son Albert (Théodore Pellerin), who is in Sicily volunteering for an NGO. Albert turned his back on his mother years ago when she came out as a lesbian and split from his father. As the opportunistic politicians bicker and jockey for advantages, playing up historical Franco-German competition for laughs, Nathalie and Albert attempt to overcome their old wounds.

The film juxtaposes the absurdity of the politicians’ demands with the absolute horror of the migrants’ experiences, effectively mixing moments of thoughtful introspection and explosive anger. By telling personal stories of pain, the film highlights both universal and specific suffering, resulting in a bitingly dark but humorous farce – that leaves its protagonists poised to encounter yet another unexpected catastrophe.