Exiled to a remote fishing town in Taiwan because of her parents’ pending divorce, a young American girl, Anna (Hana Lee), dreams of returning home to the United States to be with her friends again. Her caregiver, Adi (Febby Fransissca), is an undocumented Indonesian worker, and their bond, born of loneliness and displacement, has made them sisters. Adi promises she’ll help Anna return to America, but tells her now is not the time, making Anna extremely impatient.
Adi is just as confined as Anna. She feels like a slave and is constantly in fear of deportation. She uses a stroll on the beach as an excuse to secretly meet her Vietnamese boyfriend, Van, another undocumented migrant. Together, they dream of fleeing by train to start a new life where they can be free. But danger looms as police officers sweep the area.
That night, Adi and Anna finally decide that running away is their only choice. They pack quietly as Anna declares that she is the “Runaway Captain,” but when Anna awakens in the morning, Adi is gone.
“Together, they dream of fleeing by train to start a new life where they can be free.”
Runaway Sisters evokes feelings of loneliness, displacement, and fear. Filmmaker Peggy Chiao discusses her film’s theme as “Only by moving beyond the binary of oppressor and oppressed can migrant workers be seen as more than symbols under a gaze. Genuine empathy can only take root when human connection breaks free from the frame of pity. … Runaway Sisters explores the fragile intimacies between marginalized women divided by culture and class—a theme rarely explored in Asian cinema. As global debates over deportation and migration intensify, the story carries a sharp and urgent resonance.”
To me, Runaway Sisters is effective in illustrating how migrant issues are not limited to the United States but extend globally. It also reminds us that the undocumented are individuals and not a generalized group labeled as such on news and opinion shows.
Runaway Sisters doesn’t solve the problem of illegal migration, but it does shed light on the complexity of the issue. No one seems to have answers, but millions of people are caught in a chess game played by politicians desperate to hold on to what little power they have, no matter whom they have to use to keep it.
Chiao tells a beautiful story of sisterhood and masterfully captures the emotions, wants, and needs of each of her characters in a cinematic tapestry, reminding us that behind every f****d-up political issue are human stories of love, loss, and friendship.
For screening and series information for Runaway Sisters, visit the Diaspora Tetralogy website.
"…A story about freedom, empathy, and the fragile bond between two runaway souls."
