Over a year after it first debuted at Sundance, the film Burden has been picked up by 101 Studios. The studio has pegged the Ku Klux Klan drama for a November release.

Starring Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker, Garrett Hedlund and Grammy Award-winning R&B singer Usher Raymond, the film is set in the South during the 1990s. Based on a true story, Burden follows Mike Burden, an orphan raised by the Ku Klux Klan, who eventually falls in love with a single mother who convinces him to leave the organization behind.

Whitaker will portray Reverend Kennedy, an African American pastor who takes in Burden once the Klan pursues him. Usher portrays a character named Clarence Brooks. The film also stars Andrea Riseborough, Dexter Darden, Crystal R. Fox, Tess Harper and Tom Wilkinson.

The script for Burden, was written by Andrew Heckler, who also directed the film. “Even though it was written over 20 years ago, unfortunately, Burden is more timely than ever. Now in a time when the world has become so polarized and divided by ethnicity, race and religion, Burden can deliver a powerful message of how extremes can join together to overcome and resolve our differences and hatred through love and tolerance,” said Heckler said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, who first broke this news.

Burden is set to have a limited release in theaters on November 1 before continuing to roll out widely

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EFM: Forest Whitaker Stars as Reverend of Black Congregation Who Take in KKK Runaway in ‘Burden’

Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Rodin Eckenroth, Getty Images for Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation

Tess Harper

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