THE HATE U GIVE
USA 2018 Director: George Tillmann Jr.
Cast: Amandla Stenberg, Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby. 133 mins.
The film adaptation of Angie Thomas’ award-winning youth novel is more topical than ever: it tells the story of an African-American schoolgirl who witnesses a white cop shooting her best (also African-American) friend during a night-time police checkup. When she is called to testify in court, the young woman is caught in a conflict between moral duty and the fear of reprisals. Director George Tillman Jr. stages this story about the political awakening of a young woman with tremendous emotional impact, and without simple solutions. The famous Ten-Point Program of the Black Panthers is given as much space as the sad confession of a black policeman to react more suspiciously to African Americans in case of doubt. The death shooter isn’t portrayed as a monster, because Tillman Jr. is smart enough not to turn institutionalized racism into a ‘bad apple’ problem. The scenes in which the police brutally attack peaceful demonstrators are oppressively reminiscent of current news images from the USA in 2020. The film leaves no doubt about its basic attitude: not individuals have a problem, but the whole of America has a problem. And not hate is the solution, but humanism.
Available on Sky Ticket
Recommended by:
Kai Mihm
Trailer
