Rye Lane is your new favorite rom-com, and if you didn’t know that, you definitely will after watching it on Hulu.

Director Raine Allen-Miller explained why it was important for her to set her critically-acclaimed film in south London in a new interview with Shadow and Act.

Speaking with S&A Managing Editor Trey Mangum, Allen-Miller said that for her, south London represented what she knew.

“It was originally set in Camden, which is also a great place, but for me, I think I just know it. I’m originally from Manchester, I moved to London when I was 12 and I lived in south London and it’s the place that I know,” she said. “I walked around with my grandma and learned about where to get Jamaican spices and where to get plantain, where to get an afro comb all around Brixton. It’s a place that I feel incredibly connected to.”

“And Peckham I moved to when I went to university and again, it just has that thing where you wander around and there’s so many wonderful little pockets of different cultures and people and it’s a great place,” she continued. “I think it’s often been shown on screen as a sad place…It can be hard living in areas like that, it’s definitely not been easy for me the whole time, but for me, this is about one good day in south London and I think it’s really important to show the positives of that area.”

Watch the full interview with Allen-Miller and stars David Jonsson and Vivian Oporah below.

Rye Lane debuted at Sundance and is set to be released in the U.S. on Hulu Friday.

Vivian Oporah

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