‘The Kitchen’, Daniel Kaluuya directorial debut set to close London Film Festival

The Kitchen is closing.

According to a recent announcement from the London Film Festival (LFF), the dystopian thriller The Kitchen, helmed by Daniel Kaluuya and Kibwe Tavares for Netflix, will serve as the festival's closing film at its 67th iteration.

Prior to being shown in UK theatres and then being made available on Netflix, the movie will have its world premiere on October 15 at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall. 

The Kitchen, which is produced by DMC Film and 59% Productions, was created in collaboration with Film4, who also provided development help.

Kane "Kano" Robinson, a seasoned performer and actor, co-stars in the movie with Jedaiah Bannerman, Hope Ikpoku Jr., Teija Kabs, Demmy Ladipo, Cristale, and BackRoad Gee. 

The project was co-written by Joe Murtagh and Kaluuya.

Synopsis states, “In a dystopian London, the gap between rich and poor has been stretched to its limits. All forms of social housing have been eradicated and only The Kitchen remains. A community that refuses to move out of the place they call home. This is where we meet a solitary Izi (Kane Robinson), living here by necessity and desperately trying to find a way out, and a 12-year-old Benji (Jedaiah Bannerman), who has lost his mother and is searching for a family. We follow our unlikely pair as they struggle to forge a relationship in a system that is stacked against them.”

Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival director said about the film, “Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya have made a film that totally explodes our expectations of contemporary UK cinema.”

Further adding, “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.”

Tavares and Kaluuya also said, “We both grew up in London, and The Kitchen is a love letter to our city, so it’s a true honour to premiere it here, in our hometown, on the closing night of BFI’s London Film Festival.”

“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,” they added.