Someone Like Me (2021)

Canada is the only country that has a refugee program aimed specifically at LGBTQ persons facing persecution in their home country. The Vancouver-based non-profit Refugee Rainbow privately sponsors refugees under this program, their commitment to anyone they sponsor being that they will guarantee support for that refugee for one year. The organization also asks their volunteers in that active support - each refugee provided a group of people the organization calls a circle - to commit from the day they say "yes" to being in a circle to the end of that one year. One such circle is shown from the first day that the eleven members meet for the first time, most who did not know each other beforehand and each who is coming into the process for his or her own reasons. Most do realize that they are being thrown into a situation with a stranger - the refugee chosen - who they in the end may not like, and who in turn may not like them. Their time with Drake, the twenty-two year old refugee they choose from Uganda, is shown. While it is as much Drake's story and the inherent issues he faces in being in a largely unfamiliar environment for good or bad as he tries to eke out a life in Vancouver, it is also a story of the circle itself and the internal issues they face in being eleven somewhat very different people who see different things as being in Drake's best interest. Also adding to the complications are the issues some of the members face in their own lives, and that Drake's arrival in Vancouver is in late 2019, meaning that that first year will include the start of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic exacerbating what sense of isolation Drake may be feeling from the move itself.