On Tuesday, October 22nd, The Knockturnal attended a special screening of “Farming.”
A film based on writer and director Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s own life story. The story takes place between the 1960s and 1980s and follows the journey of a young Nigerian boy named Enitan who is farmed out by his parents to a white British working-class family. The family who fosters him for his parents to complete his studies is unstable. During his parent’s absence, Enitan struggles to find his identity and falls victim to a white supremacist skinhead gang called Tilbury skins. Through this encounter, Enitan became a tyrant amongst British residents. Farming ultimately represents the story of a boy who must learn that the most challenging task comes from within — learning to love yourself despite your identity and adversities is the greatest gift besides life.
The Knockturnal had the chance to chat with the Writer, Actor, and Director Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje.
The Knockturnal: You produced the music for this, wrote and directed this what was your process like?
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje: It was a lot of different hats to wear, it was a lot of pressure the first time I directed and when you’re telling a biography and using other peoples money that’s added pressure, but you know what? … The fact that I lived with the story for over a decade, I knew exactly the narrative I wanted to tell, I knew the real-life characters in my life so I knew what I wanted to elicit from my actors and being an actor, it was easy for me to have a relationship with my actors and then I surrounded myself with experience whether it was producorial with Michael London, Janice Williams, François Ivernal very experienced award-winning producers and my editor Tariq Anwar where all of his films have won Oscars whether its The King’s Speech, The Madness Of Saint George, American Beauty….I made sure that I surrounded myself with the expertise and the experience that I didn’t necessarily have… I had a great soundboard whenever I was making decisions and also they were my measure of objectivity on my very subjective material. It was an onerous task in the sense of I’m taking on so many tasks but I’m the sort of person that gravitates to multitasking. It brings the best out of me … when the music was of concern I never intended to actually do all of the tracks it was just that we didn’t have enough money and the producers knew I was a musician and that worked out and Island records came in and loved it and that worked out, but all of that happened because I was in some of the scenes too.
The Knockturnal: What was that like?
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje: It was wonderful doing this and music is one of my passions and to be able to marry both film and music in this one project was a dream come true, to be honest.
The Knockturnal: What was it like growing up in an all-white environment with white parents?
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje: I was given to my foster parents at 6 weeks old so it’s really nurture of nature I had no other reference point, there were no other black children in that town, so they were my parents it was only when I started to step out of the house I was made aware of what I was and that I was different and inferior, and that it was not a good thing, it was very tough and traumatic. I was subject to constant racial abuse, physical attacks, I had dogs set on me, bricks thrown at me just trying to get to school and that’s just me and the rest of the siblings in there and also in the house they’d never been exposed to African culture at all, this was first time for this. The exposure to Africa was from the tv like Tarzan or maybe it was some of the shows shown on the BBC which used lots of racial slurs …. as part of the drama so it was common varnacular to have these racial slurs being banded around so it really played a part, a breeding ground for my own self-hatred as a child because there were no positive role models or points of reference to tell me your black and your beautiful…this was the world I was thrust into and it was a tough one to navigate.
The Knockturnal: Having that experience how do you feel about Transracial adoption?
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje: I would never say never because there are so many orphans and children without parents but what people can learn from this film is that if you are going to take on a child that’s different from your own culture then you have to go above and beyond to learn that culture because you’re not just taking the child but their culture and there will come a time when he or she will need to be aware of that just telling them you’re the same as us is an illusion, out in the world they don’t just need love but that need to be nurtured culturally so I think that’s a must-do. I think that’s what you’ll learn from this — that people that take on children of a different race or culture must do their diligence on that culture and embrace it as a part of there life. I would never say never
The Knockturnal: What do you want the audience to take home after seeing this film?
Adewale Akinnouye Agbaja: If I was to capsulate the film in one word it would be hope because this is a story about triumph versus extreme adversity and no matter who you are or how people make you feel in life there’s always a way to transcend to become successful, and happy and there are other themes that people can take away the importance of maternal and fraternal love, the film is ultimately a love story it’s about the loss of that maternal love at birth that impacts one’s life, the search for it and the finding of it in one’s self, and lastly just the direct correlation between racism and self-hatred this is a real disease it’s a real infliction people of color suffer way into their adulthood, they carry it , and it doesn’t stop at racism. There are homophobic slurs, and sexist slurs that have a long lasting impact on peoples psyche and it can be devastating and this film demonstrates that on a broader scale it’s an important part of British history and until this point it was just a footnote but now with this film it’s become a headline.
Farming will be available in select theatre’s starting on October 25th, 2019
