Suicide, Adoption, Racist Gangsters: Akinnuoye-Agbaje Tells His Chilling Life Story in New Movie

Nigerian-British filmmaker is set to release Farming, a movie which talks about the journey of his life and the struggle to find his identity as a black child raised by a white family in a foreign land.

The term ‘farming’ refers to a popular practice in Britain in the 1960s to 1980s, where Nigerian parents paid white families to foster their children as they worked and schooled abroad, hoping their children would have a better life there. The system of “farming” black kids out to white parents was done outside official channels.

Adewale was born in Islington, London, to Nigerian parents of Yoruba origin, who were students in the UK. His dad Baronet came to England to study law and mum Sikirat, accountancy. Feeling they couldn’t focus on work and study with a child in tow, they paid for Adewale to live with a white working-class family in Tilbury, Essex when he was six weeks old. His foster parents had in their care at least ten African children, including Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s two sisters at certain points.

His Nigerian parents, worried about his upbringing in England, brought him back to Nigeria at the age of eight, but his inability to speak the Yoruba language and his British accent made him a subject of ridicule at school. This made him unhappy and his parents had to send him back to his foster parents in England.

At the age of thirteen, Adewale was out of control, joining a racist gang called the Skinheads after being bullied by them because of his colour. The skinheads ran the town and Adewale felt the only way to avoid being at the receiving end of the gang was to join them. His body build was a plus for him. At sixteen, Adewale had become a thief who joined the gang to bully boys of his own colour. His Nigerian parents, trying to salvage the situation, sent him to a boarding school in Surrey, but it only made matters worse as he attempted suicide.

With the help of social workers Adewale was able to come to terms with his background and rebuild his life. He earned a Law degree from King’s College London and a Master’s in Law from the University of London International Programme. While on campus he worked in a clothes shop which introduced him to the world of modelling and launched his Hollywood career. He has won roles in films including The Bourne Identity, GI Joe, Thor: The Dark World, Suicide Squad, Pompeii, Bilal, Annie, and many more.

According to Adewale “The fact is, I literally first started writing the screenplay all those years ago because I could not sleep at night.” And he had to relive his nightmarish teenage life to write and direct the film. Adewale himself played the role of his father alongside Nigerian star actress, Genevieve Nnaji. Other stellar cast members include: Kate Beckinsale, John Dagleish, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Jaime Winstone.

The movie which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018, won the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film at the 2019 Edinburgh International Film Festival in June and the lead actor, Damson Idris, won the award for Best Performance in a British Feature Film at the festival.

The film is set for a wider release in West Africa on October 25 and to be distributed by FilmOne.