The Kitchen, Daniel Kaluuya’s feature directorial debut that he co-directed with Kbwe Tavaras, has dropped its first image ahead of its bow at the London Film Festival.
The Netflix film, which stars Kane Robinson, Jedaiah Bannerman, Hope Ikpoku Jr, Teija Kabs, Demmy Ladipo, Cristale, and BackRoad Gee, explores “themes of community, inequality, family, resilience, defiance, and care in a dystopian London.”
It was written by Kaluyya and Joe Murtagh.
The Kitchen will make its world premiere on Oct. 15 at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, ahead of its release in UK cinemas and subsequent launch on Netflix.
Here's an official description:
In a dystopian London, the gap between rich and poor has been stretched to its limits. All forms of social housing have been eradicated and only The Kitchen remains. A community that refuses to move out of the place they call home. This is where we meet a solitary Izi (Kane Robinson), living here by necessity and desperately trying to find a way out, and a 12–year–old Benji (Jedaiah Bannerman), who has lost his mother and is searching for a family. We follow our unlikely pair as they struggle to forge a relationship in a system that is stacked against them.
London natives Kaluuya and Tavares say 'The Kitchen' "is a love letter to our city."
“It’s a true honour to premiere it here, in our hometown, on the closing night of BFI’s London Film Festival. Starting a decade ago as a workshop in a local Barbershop, the film’s journey from script to screen has been a continued collaboration between us, and the community of cast and crew that came to make up our ‘Kitchen,’ including our two amazing leads Kane Robinson and Jedaiah Bannerman whose performances anchor the heart of our story. Together we have aimed to make something fresh, thoughtful and cinematic – an allegory and homage to the residents of ‘The Kitchen’ in every city in the world,” Kaluuya and Tavares said.
BFI London Film Festival Director Kristy Matheson applauds Kaluuya and Tavares for creating an "an electrifying big screen experience."
“Kibwe Tavares & Daniel Kaluuya have made a film that totally explodes our expectations of contemporary UK cinema. The Kitchen offers such scope for audiences,” Matheson said. “We could not be more excited to close the festival with this inventive film set in a near future London that showcases this incredibly talented team who call this city home.”
