The 2023 BFI London Film Festival marks the world premiere of a much-discussed project from one of the UK’s biggest stars.
The kitchenCo-directed by Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya in their feature debut and co-written by Kaluuye and Murtagh, the festival closes on October 15.
The Netflix feature, starring Kane Robinson, Jedaiah Bannerman, Hope Ikpoku Jr, Teija Kabs, Demmy Ladipo, Cristale and BackRoad Gee, is set in a dystopian London, where the divide between rich and poor has been stretched to its limits. . All forms of social housing have been eradicated and only The Kitchen, a community that refuses to move from the place they call home, remains. The story revolves around Izi (Robinson), who is forced to live there and desperately trying to find a way out, and a 12-year-old Benji (Bannerman), who has lost his mother and is looking for a family, as they struggle to forge a relationship in a system stacked against them.
“We both grew up in London, and The kitchen is a love letter to our city, so it’s a real honor to premiere here, in our hometown, on the closing night of BFI’s London Film Festival,” said Tavares and Kaluuya. “The film started ten years ago as a workshop at a local barbershop and the journey from script to screen has been an ongoing collaboration between us and the community of cast and crew that made up our ‘Kitchen’, including our two amazing leads. Kane Robinson and Jedaiah Bannerman whose performances anchor the core of our story. Together we have strived to create something fresh, thoughtful and cinematic – an allegory and tribute to the residents of ‘The Kitchen’ in every city in the world.”
