FARMING
***
Director: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Screenwriter: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Principal cast:
Damson Idris
Kate Beckinsale
Lee Ross
John Dagleish
Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Country: UK
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 107 mins.
Australian release date: 21 November 2019
Previewed at: Dendy Newtown, Sydney, on 21 October 2019.
For two decades in England, between the 1960s and the ‘80s, children from West Africa were ‘farmed out’, fostered, to British families in the hope that they would receive a decent education and up-bringing while their birth parents studied or worked to establish their careers. In the extraordinary autobiographical film Farming, the Nigerian director and writer Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje takes us on a journey back to the late ‘60s, early ‘70s, when he was sent to live with a working-class family in Tilbury, near the mouth of the Thames. This was the decade before the setting of the recent Blinded By The Light, which also covered matters of immigration and racial acceptance, and things were even worse for black and brown kids than in that film. Racism was the norm in many parts of the country, skinheads roamed the streets and African, West Indian and Asian migrants were openly discriminated against. How Akinnuoye-Agbaje dealt with all this is one of those incredible ‘you wouldn’t believe it if it wasn’t true’ stories that you occasionally encounter.
Ingrid Carpenter (Kate Beckinsale) and her husband Jack (Lee Ross) are a working-class couple who take in a number of African children because it provides them with an income and fills a gap in their lives as they have no children of their own - not that they’re particularly good surrogate parents. Ingrid plays favourites and one child is almost entirely ignored. Enitan (Zephan Hanson Amissah as a boy, Damson Idris as an adolescent) is brought up in an environment in which he is bullied by the local kids and lonely in the household, where Ingrid’s affection is reserved for the girls. As he grows up, ‘Eni’ is regularly attacked by the local skinhead group known as the Tilbury Skins, led by the ruthless thug Levi (John Dagleish), but he learns to fight back and is eventually taken in by them. Levi uses Eni as his plaything and embroils him in his gang of unemployed losers, who have too much time on their hands and intimidate everyone they meet, even the police. It’s only through the intervention of a teacher, Ms. Dapo (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who sees that Eni has potential and tries to give supportive advice to him, that a glimmer of hope enters the youngster’s life. It’s interesting to learn during Farming that the name Enitan signifies ‘a person about whose birth there is a story’ - it’s a well-chosen name because you couldn’t find a stranger tale than his.
The key performances are blistering, especially the scenes between Eni and the skinheads. Idris is simply amazing and has a bright future judging by his portrayal here; he totally captures the bewilderment and rage that the director experienced and makes his unbelievable story believable. Even though you know that Akinnuoye-Agbaje survived, because he has been able to find the courage and backing to make this film, it still leaves a sour taste in your mouth knowing that a human being had to go through such an ordeal. Dagleish oozes malevolence as the skinhead leader who doesn’t exhibit a skerrick of humanity, indeed, you might think he’s overplaying it if, in fact, the real Tilbury Skins weren’t so notorious. Beckinsale plays up Ingrid a bit too much though - her Essex accent is much too broad and you suspect that her role was heightened for dramatic purposes.
Farming is a tense and courageous film, one that doesn’t hold back in revealing the truth. It’s not entirely successful but you can’t deny Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s talent. It’s his first feature, he wrote the screenplay, he acts in it (as Enitan’s real dad) and he even sings on the soundtrack! In a recent statement he said, “Blacks are simply tolerated in Britain, as opposed to accepted, we simply have to look at the recent Windrush scandal as an example of this. If you want change or harmony, you are going to have to look at these issues honestly and not sweep them under the carpet as if they are a dirty secret that will disappear. It’s about embracing and accepting that the African population, and other immigrant cultures, have been an integral part of British culture and community. This isn’t about implementing laws, it’s about affecting people’s mindsets, perspectives and attitudes. It is my hope that Farming will do exactly that.”
Screenwriter: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Principal cast:
Damson Idris
Kate Beckinsale
Lee Ross
John Dagleish
Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Country: UK
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 107 mins.
Australian release date: 21 November 2019
Previewed at: Dendy Newtown, Sydney, on 21 October 2019.
For two decades in England, between the 1960s and the ‘80s, children from West Africa were ‘farmed out’, fostered, to British families in the hope that they would receive a decent education and up-bringing while their birth parents studied or worked to establish their careers. In the extraordinary autobiographical film Farming, the Nigerian director and writer Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje takes us on a journey back to the late ‘60s, early ‘70s, when he was sent to live with a working-class family in Tilbury, near the mouth of the Thames. This was the decade before the setting of the recent Blinded By The Light, which also covered matters of immigration and racial acceptance, and things were even worse for black and brown kids than in that film. Racism was the norm in many parts of the country, skinheads roamed the streets and African, West Indian and Asian migrants were openly discriminated against. How Akinnuoye-Agbaje dealt with all this is one of those incredible ‘you wouldn’t believe it if it wasn’t true’ stories that you occasionally encounter.
Ingrid Carpenter (Kate Beckinsale) and her husband Jack (Lee Ross) are a working-class couple who take in a number of African children because it provides them with an income and fills a gap in their lives as they have no children of their own - not that they’re particularly good surrogate parents. Ingrid plays favourites and one child is almost entirely ignored. Enitan (Zephan Hanson Amissah as a boy, Damson Idris as an adolescent) is brought up in an environment in which he is bullied by the local kids and lonely in the household, where Ingrid’s affection is reserved for the girls. As he grows up, ‘Eni’ is regularly attacked by the local skinhead group known as the Tilbury Skins, led by the ruthless thug Levi (John Dagleish), but he learns to fight back and is eventually taken in by them. Levi uses Eni as his plaything and embroils him in his gang of unemployed losers, who have too much time on their hands and intimidate everyone they meet, even the police. It’s only through the intervention of a teacher, Ms. Dapo (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who sees that Eni has potential and tries to give supportive advice to him, that a glimmer of hope enters the youngster’s life. It’s interesting to learn during Farming that the name Enitan signifies ‘a person about whose birth there is a story’ - it’s a well-chosen name because you couldn’t find a stranger tale than his.
The key performances are blistering, especially the scenes between Eni and the skinheads. Idris is simply amazing and has a bright future judging by his portrayal here; he totally captures the bewilderment and rage that the director experienced and makes his unbelievable story believable. Even though you know that Akinnuoye-Agbaje survived, because he has been able to find the courage and backing to make this film, it still leaves a sour taste in your mouth knowing that a human being had to go through such an ordeal. Dagleish oozes malevolence as the skinhead leader who doesn’t exhibit a skerrick of humanity, indeed, you might think he’s overplaying it if, in fact, the real Tilbury Skins weren’t so notorious. Beckinsale plays up Ingrid a bit too much though - her Essex accent is much too broad and you suspect that her role was heightened for dramatic purposes.
Farming is a tense and courageous film, one that doesn’t hold back in revealing the truth. It’s not entirely successful but you can’t deny Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s talent. It’s his first feature, he wrote the screenplay, he acts in it (as Enitan’s real dad) and he even sings on the soundtrack! In a recent statement he said, “Blacks are simply tolerated in Britain, as opposed to accepted, we simply have to look at the recent Windrush scandal as an example of this. If you want change or harmony, you are going to have to look at these issues honestly and not sweep them under the carpet as if they are a dirty secret that will disappear. It’s about embracing and accepting that the African population, and other immigrant cultures, have been an integral part of British culture and community. This isn’t about implementing laws, it’s about affecting people’s mindsets, perspectives and attitudes. It is my hope that Farming will do exactly that.”