The world premiere of Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya’s dystopian feature The Kitchen will close the 67th BFI London Film Festival on October 15.
The festival’s Closing Night Gala will take place at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall.
The Kitchen will then head to UK cinemas at a to-be-confirmed date, expected before the end of the year; followed by a release on Netflix.
The long-gestating film is set in a dystopian London, where a community refuses to move after the eradication of all social housing. A man desperately trying to find a way out forms a partnership with a 12-year-old searching for a family; and the pair struggle against a system stacked against them.
Directed by UK filmmakers Tavares and Kaluuya, the film is written by Kaluuya and Joe Murtagh. It is produced by Daniel Emmerson for DMC Film and Kaluuya for 59% Productions; and was made in association with Film4, which also supported development.
Kane Robinson and Jedaiah Bannerman lead the cast, alongside Hope Ikpoku Jr, Teija Kabs, Demmy Ladipo, Cristale and BackRoad Gee.
Kaluuya (2009, as an actor), Tavares (2012), Emmerson (2015) and Murtagh (2016) have all previously been named Screen Stars of Tomorrow.
A statement from Tavares and Kaluuya said it is “a true honour” to launch the film in the city where they both grew up. “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’” said the directors. “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.”
“Kibwe Tavares & Daniel Kaluuya have made a film that totally explodes our expectations of contemporary UK cinema,” said Kristy Matheson, heading into her first festival as LFF director. “The Kitchen offers such scope for audiences – the essential social politics and high-octane energy gel perfectly to create an electrifying big screen experience.”
With Emerald Fennell’s Amazon Prime-distributed Saltburn announced as the opening title last week, 2023 marks the third year in succession that both the opening and closing titles hail from major streamers, after Netflix’s Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical (distributed theatrically by Sony in UK-Ireland only) and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery in 2022, and The Harder They Fall from Netflix and The Tragedy Of Macbeth from Apple in 2021.
The Closing Night Gala will also include the announcement of the winning film in the BMW Filmmaking Challenge, in partnership with the BFI. Five shortlisted short films are currently in production for the scheme, and will be completed by September. Actor Ncuti Gatwa, director Asif Kapadia and journalist Terri White will then select a winning title to screen at the Closing Night premiere.
The full LFF programme will be unveiled on August 31.
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