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Farming

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United Kingdom · 2018
Rated R · 1h 47m
Director Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Starring Damson Idris, Kate Beckinsale, John Dagleish, Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Genre Drama

Based on the filmmaker’s childhood, FARMING recounts the story of a young Nigerian boy in the 1980s, 'farmed out' by his parents to a white British family in the hope that he will have a better future. Struggling to find an identity, he instead falls in with a feared white skinhead gang.

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What are critics saying?

40

Empire by

Though the central performance is impressively raw Farming’s uncompromising bleakness drowns out the fascinating story, making it a far tougher watch than it needs to be.

80

Screen Daily by Allan Hunter

Told with raw emotion and lurid violence, it transforms elements of his life story into a disturbing, eye-opening coming of age drama.

50

Los Angeles Times by Carlos Aguilar

Some distance between the source and the story would have benefited the themes at play, which end up buried beneath punches, slurs and bestial masculinity.

50

Variety by Jessica Kiang

Unremittingly, bludgeoningly bleak in its portrayal of his own degradation and humiliation, and displaying only a passing interest in his eventual rehabilitation, the film is remarkable for its lack of self-pity, but it makes the experience of “Farming” a merciless one for the audience too.

60

The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

Farming is a tough film on a tough subject. There’s not much light and shade – but there can’t have been much light and shade going through it in real life – and Gubu Mbatha-Raw’s role as the concerned teacher is weakly drawn.

60

Time Out by Phil de Semlyen

It has a kernel of raw torment and an unforgiving streak that hints at still-unreconciled wounds, too. It’s not the best film of the year, but it’s definitely one of the most personal.

40

The Observer (UK) by Simran Hans

Enitan’s trauma is revelled in but for what? Few new truths are learned here. A rushed, redemptive montage towards the film’s end is presented as ickily aspirational.

50

The Hollywood Reporter by Stephen Dalton

Closely based on the director's own troubled youth, Farming is rooted in rich, complex, potentially gripping material. But Akinnuoye-Agbaje slaps this story together with so little subtlety, he ends up seriously diluting its dramatic power.

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