Daniel Kaluuya is stepping up his creativity behind the camera a year after winning the best supporting actor Oscar for Judas and the Black Messiah.
In his first co-writing credit, the British actor collaborated with Joe Murtagh (Calm with Horses, Gangs of London) on Netflix's futuristic dystopian thriller The Kitchen, based on an original premise by Kaluuya, Kibwe Tavares, and Daniel Emmerson (Calm with Horses). Kaluuya will also produce the film under his 59 percent Productions label, while Emmerson will produce for DMC Film, Michael Fassbender's producing business.
Set in London in 2044, The Kitchen paints a bleak futuristic world in which the gap between rich and poor has been stretched to its limits. With all forms of social housing having been eradicated, London’s working classes have been forced to live in temporary accommodation on the outskirts of the city. The Kitchen, however, is the first and the largest of its kind: London’s last village harbouring residents that refuse to move on and move out of the place they call home. The story revolves around local residents Izi, who is desperately trying to find a way out, and 12-year-old Benji, who has lost his mother and is searching for a family, as they battle to survive in a system that is stacked against them.
Izi will be played by actor and musician Kane Robinson, best known for his starring role in Netflix’s Top Boy series, which has just returned for the second season since being rebooted. Benji will be played by young newcomer Jedaiah Bannerman, who was discovered by casting director Aisha Bywaters (The Last Tree, We Are Lady Parts, County Lines). Bywaters, who was selected for BAFTA Breakthrough program in 2021, will reportedly use The Kitchen to launch a host of young British talent.
The Kitchen will also mark the feature directorial debut of co-creator Tavares, a multi-disciplinarian whose work has crossed theatre, shorts and architecture. Tavares was awarded the Sundance special jury award for his animated short Robots of Brixton and was nominated for the Sundance short film grand jury prize for Jonah, which starred Kaluuya. He also exec produced the BBC’s sci-fi drama Noughts & Crosses, leading the design and world building through his creative studio, Factory Fifteen.
“In 2011, I was in my barbershop and there was a guy boasting about smash and grabs — kids doing million-pound heists in a minute, getting paid £200 to do it. I saw the potential to unlock a unique story door to the inequality, fatherhood, class, joy, resilience, courage, defiance and care of London,” said Kaluuya. “Now, nearly a decade later, Kibwe Tavares, Daniel Emmerson and I are about to start production, immersing ourselves in a dystopian London that interrogates what ‘care’ means, at home and as a society and the dangers in our future if we stay indifferent to everything around us.”
