The Kitchen is a sci-fi movie directed by Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya. It stars Kane Robinson, Jedaiah Bannerman, and Henry Lawfull.
“The Kitchen” is a dystopia set in a future London ghetto. It is a story of survival, life, and technology, and above all, a horrifying narrative that seems to foreshadow a future where everything will be terrifying under the governance of technology.
A kind of “Black Mirror” with a racial perspective, much more social, and equally terrifying about this future that, to a greater or lesser extent, we all fear a little more every day.
Plot
In the year 2040, a boy has just lost his mother and encounters one of the employees of the funeral home, who lives in a ghetto called “The Kitchen”. The boy gradually starts integrating there, under the watchful eye of police drones.
The inhabitants of this district in London survive as best as they can, facing the obvious news that the powerful ones want to put an end to this place in order to continue building that perfect London that some dream of.
About the movie
Perfect in its intentions, always achieving its objectives of social criticism and dystopia with more than credible elements. It happened with George Orwell’s novel, “1984,” the precursor of this entire dystopian movement. Now everything is even clearer: technology threatens everything and will undoubtedly serve the most powerful to enslave the less fortunate classes.
On this axis, nothing new on the other hand, directors Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya make a very good film that is more of a highly realistic social dystopia than a spectacle of special effects: there are hardly any, and the directors are quite determined not to highlight them. Here, it is more important to reflect the collective struggle against oppression than to impress us with a display of special effects.
After watching the movie, we won’t want to have that latest mobile phone with holographic enlargement they use in the film (by the way, amazing), we will fear oppression more than the happy world of Aldous Huxley, a thousand times more technological, but equally oppressive.
“The Kitchen” is commendable in terms of its characters and setting. It successfully creates a futuristic film set in the “dirty” world where nothing is perfect and everything is surrounded by garbage and imperfection. Cleanliness is found in other places, supposedly clean ones, which ultimately become more frightening due to their lack of humanity.
Is it a protest film? Certainly, it is a clear denunciation of racial oppression, and it is impossible to see it otherwise. However, despite openly showcasing its intentions, it convinces in its technical and narrative aspects, in the editing, and in the overall coherence of the entire film.
Our Opinion
Consistent, dystopian, and yet realistic. It does not rely on showcasing technological advancements or dazzling visual effects.
A highly human science fiction film.
Where to Watch “The Kitchen”
