BFI London Film Festival Set To Close With Daniel Kaluuya and Kibwe Tavares’ ‘The Kitchen’
Kane Brett Robinson and Brooklyn Appiah - The Kitcken
The London-set drama The Kitchen, directed by Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya, will close the 67th BFI London Film Festival. The film marks the feature directorial debut of Oscar-winning actor Kaluuya, who also co-wrote with Joe Murtagh (Calm With Horses). Tavares previously directed the Sundance-winning short Robots of Brixton.
In The Kitchen, the gap between rich and poor has stretched to its limits. All forms of social housing are destroyed, and only The Kitchen remains—a community that refuses to move out of the place they call home. The film follows Izi (Kane Robinson), who lives there by necessity and is desperately trying to find a way out, and 12-year-old Benji (Jedaiah Bannerman), who has lost his mother and is searching for a family, as they struggle to forge a relationship in a system stacked against them.
Hope Ikpoku Jr., Teija Kabs, Demmy Ladipo, Cristale, and BackRoad Gee are among the cast members. On October 15, 2023, the Royal Festival Hall at London's Southbank Centre will host the movie's world premiere. The Kitchen was produced by DMC Film and 59% Productions in collaboration with Film4, which supported its development.
In a joint press statement after the announcement, Kaluuya and Tavares stated, “We both grew up in London, and The Kitchen is a love letter to our city, so it’s a true honor to premiere it here, in our hometown, on the closing night of BFI’s London Film Festival,” adding, “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,’ including our two amazing leads Kane Robinson and Jedaiah Bannerman, whose performances anchor the heart of our story. 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.”
Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival director, spoke highly of the film, saying, “Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya have made a film that totally explodes our expectations of contemporary U.K. cinema. The Kitchen offers such scope for audiences — the essential social politics and high-octane energy gel perfectly to create an electrifying big-screen experience. We could not be more excited to close the festival with this inventive film set in a near future London that showcases this incredibly talented team who call this city home.”
The winner of the BMW Filmmaking Challenge in partnership with the BFI will be revealed on the closing night. The BFI London Film Festival runs October 4-15, 2023.