Steal Away world premiere in Toronto

Steal Away is a Screen Flanders-supported co-production between Conquering Lion Pictures (Canada) and Potemkino (Belgium). Director Clement Virgo co-wrote the script with Tamara Faith Berger.

In Steal Away, two teenage girls, a debutante and a refugee, are plunged into a psychosexual tug-of-war in an alternate universe that echoes the Deep South.

The film, starring Angourie Rice, Mallori Johnson, Lauren Lee Smith and Idrissa Sanogo Bamba, wrapped principal photography in Belgium last summer.

The decision to make Steal Away a co-production with Belgium afforded the filmmakers access to some of the most spectacular locations that they had ever been able to work with, including the 350-year-old Lozer Kasteel which played the Thruston House in Lozer, a small town outside Ghent; gorgeous farmland, fields and forests that surrounded the castle; and the 500,000 year old Caves of Han (where Florence goes for the cure). This is an underground cave system which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, located between the Fagnes and the Ardennes, south of Dinant.

Hilde Van Mieghem plays the role of the mother, Rose Thruston. Also Matteo Simoni, Koen De Bouw, Charlotte Timmers and Veerle Dejaeger appear. Other talent from Flanders involved in the film are costume designer Sofie Callaerts and hair and make-up designer Michelle Beeckman. 

Steal Away is funded by Telefilm Canada, the Canada Media Fund, Ontario Creates, the Belgian Tax Shelter through BNP Paribas Fortis Film Finance and Screen Flanders. Sales & festivals are handled by Visit Films. 

TIFF’s 50th edition runs from Sept. 4 to 14.