Farming

Those negative reviews for this movie are a joke. People need to leave their personal feelings and viewpoints out of it when they are reviewing a movie. And those petty enough to call the director out as a "liar," claiming "this never happened" nonsense is equally ridiculous; it's a movie, created to entertain and or educate. Who cares if it's fact or fiction? The people with this complaint probably believe that Hollywood trash like "Pearl Harbor" is not mostly fiction. On to the technical aspects of this movie, (something that actually matters), "Farming" is a beautifully, artfully shot slice of eye candy, which is ironic considering the grotesquely ugly themes of this difficult movie. Kate Beckinsale is utterly believable as the Cockney speaking Londoner who brings extra cash into the house by raising the Nigerian children left in her care by parents who don't have the means to raise them. Growing up in a completely White surrounding, where most everyone seems to be at least a little racist, and sometimes intensely racist against the people who's skin color is the same as young Enitan, the Nigerian boy, thrust into this alien world where everyone looks different from him. This film is basically about self identity, and how our surroundings and upbringing shape the person we become, and how our minds work. So although Enitan is Black, he grows up like his peers, despising people with black skin. What an insane and unique theme for a film..FINALLY something different. When Enitan joins up with the skinhead gang who had been torturing him, things become quite intense indeed. He calls himself Andy and shaves off his offending afro, so desperate to be among the people he relates to, even as they hate him and abuse him to no end. Movies about skinhead culture are rare, maybe one appears every 10 years or so. This one stands out with the best of them, including "This Is England," "Romper Stomper," and is especially similar in tone to "Made In Britain" with Tim Roth. Also worthy of praise is the acting in "Farming," as everyone turns in intensely believable performances. John Dagleish gives an especially ferocious performance as 'Levi,' the leader of the Tilbury skinheads, and Damson Idris' portrayal of the tortured, self loathing Enitan is brave and faultless. This movie is destined for cult status as it finds it's right audience. Those pathetic 1 star reviews prove that this film reached the wrong audience. Oh well, "Blade Runner" was also a flop when it first came out, so only time will tell. I recommend "Farming" to fans of edgy cinema that doesn't shy away from uncomfortable scenarios, and also to those interested in the Skinhead youth culture of the 70's and 80's. Similar to "The Krays" and "Legend," thankfully this is also a British production, so it manages to avoid the sappy, moralizing and PC garbage that Hollywood feels the need to inject into it's productions.

In the early 1990s while dinning in an African restaurant in Los Angeles, I bumped into Adewale - he'd heard my English accent as I spoke with my West African wife and struck up a conversation. We exchanged numbers and agreed to meet up again having mentioned our mutual interest in the movie industry. He was just breaking into Hollywood and I fancied myself a screenwriter. Adewale shared the phenomenon of 'farming the children,' recounting his own experiences under that abdication of parental responsibility. Since we're both Londoners of similar age we shared stories of our youth in the late seventies. I spent that period of my life deeply immersed in the British punk rock scene, itself a hub for the skinhead and mod revivals. I have no recollection of Adewale mentioning his peculiar involvement in a gang of ultra-violent white racist skinheads during this era; perhaps shame dictated he avoid speaking of such an astonishing episode in his life.What I do know is that his movie's portrayal of nineteen-seventies white working-class English people and of the subcultures of their children is absurdly cartoonish and trite. The neo-Nazi, psycho-skin trope has been a reliable contemporary Hammer Horror-like monster which 'Farmed' disappointingly enjoins. It's unfortunate since this era's youth is redolent with story lines worth telling - and worth telling accurately. The working-class English who lived during that time are a kaleidoscope of characters and attitudes worthy of honest examination as are their interactions with immigrants and their English-born children. To portray them as generally bigoted, oafish, humourless and hyper-aggressive is to indulge a stereotype no less insulting than the black pimp or the inscrutable Asian. Nigerian farmed children have unique and lamentable stories, but for me this film failed to capture the emotional complexity and profundity of the arrangement due to heavy-handed poetic license of the writer/director.

Suicide Squad's Adewale AkinnuoyeAgbaje turns writer/director to revisit his own youth in a striking if unsophisticated biopic. As a child, Enitan's Nigerian parents have him raised by a white family in '60s London - the 'farming' that the title refers to. As a teen (Damson Idris, compelling), Enitan falls in with a white-supremacist skinhead gang. Yes, really. The shocking true story is undeniably fascinating, but it's underserved by the somewhat unpolished filmmaking; at times the low budget feels all too apparent. Still, Idris shows true potential, and Kate Beckinsale plays pleasingly against type as Enitan's workingclass adoptive mum.

For what this is, the film deserves a top score. This is a very subjective opinion from a fellow farmee - it is astonishing there is still so little information available on the project between the 1960 - 1990 & how specifically Nigerians were affected. I'm sure there are plenty that would like to know more about their experiences but will struggle to find much. The film paints a perfect picture of the time & articulates the challenge of identity with aplomb.

I was not aware of the "farming" practice... But i'm "happy" - kind of - to have discovered it with this movie. The only fact that it is based on the writer's life made it so strong and so, deep! I recommend this movie to anyone interested into this topic - or anyone who enjoy great movies! There is some images that really hit at the right place... Damson Idris is really something... His role must have been hard to do but he nailed it like... NAILED IT!... And what to say about Kate Beckinsale, simply stunning!!! Seriously, are you still reading ?.... Go watch this movie, and hit like NOW!