LOST CITY

Daniel Kaluuya and Kibwe Tavares team up on their feature directorial debut, THE KITCHEN, a dystopian sci-fi set in an all-tooplausible future London. Total Film meets the duo and their collaborators to talk about bringing their vision of the Big Smoke to a global audience.

- LEILA LATIF

When Londoners get together the conversation inevitably turns to how the city ‘ain’t what it used to be’. The evidence provided usually includes house prices, the Circle Line and the gentrification of Brixton. Oscar-winning actor Daniel Kaluuya is no exception and asks Total Film, ‘What happened to King’s Cross?!’ The Camden native shakes his head and continues, ‘I grew up right up the road, and it’s been drained of its nuance, intricacies and identity. They made it generic to impress people coming off the Eurostar.’

Kaluuya has co-written and codirected the dystopian thriller The Kitchen, which takes place in a near-future London where social housing is outlawed. Most of the city is a pristine, bland nightmare devoid of messy humanity, but The Kitchen estate has endured despite the government’s best efforts. Kaluuya’s co-director (and fellow Londoner) Kibwe Tavares explains, ‘London’s like all these villages that are stuck together. And in our world, all of those have been eradicated, and The Kitchen is London’s last one. It’s the lifeblood of the city.’

The film follows Kitchen resident Izi (Kane ‘Kano’ Robinson), who longs to leave the place he calls a ‘shithole’. To be fair to Izi, the water and power are erratic, and the police brutalise residents and load their unconscious bodies into vans. Izi’s perspective on his home begins to change when he meets a young boy called Benji (Jedaiah Bannerman), who needs a place to stay and suspects Izi is his father. As Tavares puts it, ‘Izi goes on the journey of realising that actually there’s more to The Kitchen and he needs more human connection.’