Daniel Kaluuya is only 34; he’s already an Oscar winner— Best Supporting Actor for “Judas and the Black Messiah” in 2020 and a two-time nominee— and in 2021, he was named among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. And since that Oscar win, we’ve only seen him onscreen once in live-action, 2021’s “Nope,” by Jordan Peele. Where’s he been all this time? Evidently cooking up something for his directorial debut, “The Kitchen,” co-directed with Kibwe Tavares (“Robots of Brixton,” “Jonah”).
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Ten years in the making, “The Kitchen” is an original story conceived by Kaluuya, Tavares, and Daniel Emmerson (“Calm With Horses”). The film also marks the debut of rapper Kano, aka Kane Robinson, in the leading role.
A film about community, inequality, family, class, joy, resilience, courage, defiance, and care in London, it’s also a dystopian sci-fi-ish film, but clearly, Tavares and Kaluuya have some things to say about communities around the globe.
This new trailer for “The Kitchen” introduces Arsenal FC legend and former England striker Ian Wright’s Lord Kitchener— the DJ, de facto’ leader’ and father figure to the community of The Kitchen as they make their last stand— guiding and inspiring them to resist and never forget they stand stronger together.
The film also stars Jedaiah Bannerman, Hope Ikpoku Jr, Ian Wright, BackRoad Gee, Cristale, Teija Kabs, and Demmy Ladipo.
Here’s the official synopsis:
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, living here by necessity and desperately trying to find a way out, and a 12-year-old Benji, 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.
“The Kitchen” debuts January 19 on Netflix. Watch the new trailer below.