The Kitchen to Have Its World Premiere at BFI London Film Festival

Daniel Kaluuya's debut as a writer will have its World Premiere at the BFI London Film Festival this October as the Closing Night Gala.

The Kitchen, starring Kane Robinson and Jedaiah Bannerman, is the first feature film from director Kibwe Tavares. Daniel Kaluuya collaborated with Joe Murtagh on the script.

The film takes place in a dystopian London where 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 director/writer duo 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."

The BFI London Film Festival director, Kristy Matherson, said, "Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya have made a film that totally explodes our expectations of contemporary UK cinema. 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".

This year's BFI London Festival will run from October 4 - 15.