Successfully taking advantage of the uneasy trepidation of adolescence, The Last Tree attends to a teenagers relocation from the agreeable and idyllic childhood life they enjoyed in the English countryside to the concrete hostilities of inner London. Written and directed by Shola Amoo, it's a partially-autobiographical film which contains intricacies as well as conveying a visual lyricism in its treatment to a principally familiar story. Cinematographer Stil Williams gracefully shoots with careful attention to detail as the storyline unfolds with increasingly impressive and observable assurance. 

Sam Adewunmi, as central character Femi, provides an expressive performance and it's the broadly considerable accomplishments from the entire cast which corroborate this to be a demonstrative investigation of different surroundings complicating the navigational path…

This coming-of-age film is a compelling and tender study of family, identity and the place we call home. A young British-Nigerian boy who is raised by his loving foster mother, is suddenly uprooted during his early teens when he is claimed by his tough biological mother living in a rough tower block in South London. The change of scene brings about its fair share of challenges, both in this new domestic setting as well as the racial ridicule he now faces in school. His name, Femi (a shortened nickname in itself), is one which attracts endless teasing.

The film explores the feelings of longing for what was familiar and comforting, confronting the complexities of your cultural identity, and forging your…

This proved to be one of those rare movies that I didn't feel needed digesting, and such was it's impact, was compelled to review immediately after viewing. The screenplay follows a young boy Femi, in fostercare with kindly soul Mary, in seemingly idyllic rural Lincolnshire. When Femi's birth mother re-enters his life, he has to adjust to a very different urban environment in inner city London. As the films details two distinct periods in Femi's life, he is initially played in younger years by a very natural Tai Golding, as he tackles the trauma of leaving Denise Black's Mary. Then there's the terrific Sam Adewunmi, who as a teenage Femi, gets most the screentime, and dominating the more emotional 'heavy…

There has been much discussion recently about whether white writers can effectively review films by directors of colour, due to a number of publications repeatedly posting reviews from white critics with various misunderstandings of cultural nuances. This might be why The Last Tree, the sophomore, semi-autobiographical feature from British director Shola Amoo, is so striking. With a narrative pieced together from five years of reflection on his own experiences and interviews with other British Nigerians, Amoo has calmly, authoritatively told a personal story while dismantling the stereotypes white audiences might expect from a coming of age story about a character of colour.

It’s a highly specific tale of childhood and young adulthood that has a universality to its themes; the…

"Remembering you
Fallen into my arms
Crying for the death of your heart
You were stone white
So delicate
Lost in the cold
You were always so lost in the dark
Remembering you
How you used to be
Slow drowned
You were angels."

One negative about being a child and young person is having little choice and control over your environment, and when there's a mismatch between parent and child, and environment and child, it can be a walking nightmare. Shola Amoo has this anxious and scared feeling nailed down in The Last Tree as we watch the protagonist's eyes from childhood to adolescence with the fright and reluctance that these mismatches cause. It can feel like your life is…

Watched last night for our anniversary~~

Really enjoyable although it took a long time for me to "settle in". The weakest part of this film is its editing because my goodness is there some FANTASTIC camera work here that looks beautiful and embraces a clever level of creativity. Meanwhile, scenes will just end outta nowhere and it's the strangest, most abrupt thing.

Also, there's a scene that's edited like a Lars Von Trier film but the set design is like a Nicolas Winding Refn film and that was a major cloud 9 moment for me but even so, the editing was just like whaaaaaaaaat is happening.

Meanwhile, the film has a LOT in it that is so wonderfully fantastic and…

20 Films by Black Directors

Film # 1

The Last Tree made me think of why some people think of love as an action rather than a feeling. It’s something that I personally haven’t given much though to. But it came to mind after watching Femi’s story play out on screen. Femi is a frustrated young man who becomes quite discontent after he is removed from his foster home and taken in by his birth mother. He sees her (and his father who is mentioned throughout the film) as absent parents and is quite content with his foster mother, Mary. He begins to lash out at his biological mother and at the world in ways that are unbecoming, but expected…

Nicely done coming-of-age film from contemporary Nigerian-British filmmaker Shola Amoo. It touches on themes of identity, racism, mothering and is quite beautiful. Femi, a young Nigerian boy is being raised by a white foster mother in rural England when his birth mother arrives to take him back to her inner-city London neighborhood. The film then follows Femi's passage through late adolescence in a new environment with much fewer options.

Many have compared this to "Moonlight" but although it does a similar juxtaposition of different periods in a boy's life and racism, the themes here are very different. For one, there is the immigrant experience and the way that racism intersects with nationality and colonialism in England. The acting is uniformly…

Nicely done coming-of-age film from contemporary Nigerian-British filmmaker Shola Amoo. It touches on themes of identity, racism, mothering and is quite beautiful. Femi, a young Nigerian boy is being raised by a white foster mother in rural England when his birth mother arrives to take him back to her inner-city London neighborhood. The film then follows Femi's passage through late adolescence in a new environment with much fewer options.

Many have compared this to "Moonlight" but although it does a similar juxtaposition of different periods in a boy's life and racism, the themes here are very different. For one, there is the immigrant experience and the way that racism intersects with nationality and colonialism in England. The acting is uniformly…