TILL

"Justice needed a voice" - Uplifting Real-Life Social Justice Drama

Cert: 12A

2022 130 mins (plus an intermission of 15 mins) 2.35:1

Director: Chinonye Chukwu

Starring: Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie Till-Moberly and Jalyn Hall as Emmett Till with Frankie Faison, Haley Bennett and Whoopi Goldberg

'Till' is a profoundly emotional and cinematic film about the true story of Mamie Till-Mobley's relentless pursuit of justice for her 14 year old son, Emmett Till, who, in 1955, was lynched while visiting his cousins in Mississippi. Mamie fights back and determinedly pursues a legal process against a profoundly prejudiced judicial system. In Mamie's poignant journey of grief turned to action, we see the universal power of a mother's ability to change the world.

"Handle with Care" could have been on the cover of the script for Till, but it wasn't necessary because director Chinonye Chukwu, following her Sundance-winning Clemency, crafts her gentle but powerful depiction of 14-year-old Emmett Till's Mississippi lynching and the subsequent trial of two white men. This docudrama not only does justice to the tragedy, but also shows the death's influence on the 1967 Civil Rights Act.

The film will be shown with an intermission with the bar and ice creams available.

Chinonye Chukwu asks us to look beyond individual legal outcomes and see the bigger picture - to take strength from tragedy and find hope even in despair. Chukwu and cinematographer Bobby Bukowski can barely bring themselves to peer away from Deadwyler, who stuns in scene after scene.

Mark Kermode, Observer

A sensational acting showcase for Deadwyler, as Mamie shifts from devastated mother to reluctant activist. This story and this film deserve your attention.

Clayton Davis, Variety