About a year ago, we got news that Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s Farming was finding acclaim on the festival circuit. That has been followed by a harrowing trailer which did a stellar job in whetting appetite for the movie focused on the real-life story of a Nigerian boy’s search for identity and belonging, within a savage skinhead subculture in 1980s Britain. The term ‘farming’ refers to the practice of Nigerian parents who paid white families to foster their children in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, while they worked or studied.
FilmOne, one of the leading movie distributors in Nigeria has announced it will distributing the movie as part of it’s resolve to ensure the spread of Nigerian stories to the big screen, it will be releasing British drama Farming in collaboration with Accelerate TV and Stint Group on 25th October, 2019 across West Africa.
Moses Babatope, Managing Director, FilmOne, explains the importance of Farming to the region. “We have so many stories that need to be told. Many, like Farming, have relevance beyond Africa and affect the history and culture of other countries where there is a Nigerian diaspora. We want to ensure that audiences in west Africa get to watch movies that shift the conversation around our impact on the world.”
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje also said “This was a huge boost of encouragement because I was a first-time screenwriter. Here in Britain, we know a lot about the history of slavery, civil rights and the African-American experience. But very little is known about the Black British struggle. This is just one of our stories.”
Farming won the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film at the 2019 Edinburgh International Film Festival in June.
Young Damson Idris, plays Enitan, a Nigerian boy in the foster care system who journeys from self-hatred to self-discovery while being a member of a skinhead gang in 1980s England. The film is star studded, featuring the likes of Kate Beckinsale, John Dagleish, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jaime Winstone and Genevieve Nnaji. Beckinsale, plays Enitan’s foster mother and Mbatha-Raw portrays a benevolent teacher who offers him one last chance at redemption and Akinnuoye-Agbaje, plays his own father.
It is set for release in Nigerian, Ghanaian and Liberian cinemas from October 25th, 2019.