‘Farming’ First-Look Toronto Clip: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje Tells His Story With Help From Kate Beckinsale

EXCLUSIVE: Lost alum Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje is getting personal in his directorial debut feature, Farming, which he also wrote. Premiering September 8 at the Toronto Film Festival, the film is inspired Akinnuoye-Agbaje real-life experience with the practice of farming, a term used in the 60s in reference to Nigerian immigrants coming to Britain who would foster their children out to poor white working-class families in order to create a better opportunity for themselves. Once they had accomplished what they set out to do, they would pick up their children and return to Africa to rebuild their lives.

Kate Beckinsale and Snowfall’s Damson Idris portray a foster mother and child relationship which, from the preview, is not without contention.

Here’s the synopsis: At six weeks old, Enitan (Idris) is left in the care of a white working-class family in the dock-town of Tilbury, in Essex. His new surrogate mother, Ingrid (Beckinsale), makes for a complex, but a dubious foster parent. Unsure of his place in the world, and lacking a mother’s love, Enitan spirals into self-destruction, falling in with a local skinhead gang, who forces Enitan to learn to loathe his own skin.

John Dagleish, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jaime Winstone, Genevieve Nnaji, Zephan Amissah, Tom Canton, and Theodore Barklem-Biggs also star.

Michael London, Janice Williams, François Ivernel, and Andrew Levitas produced the project with Akinnuoye-Agbaje serving as executive producer. Frédéric Fiore of Logical Pictures and Levitas of Metalwork Pictures financed. Hanway is handling international sales, while Endeavor Content/CAA rep the U.S. rights.

Check out the clip above.