After winning the Iris Prize LGBT Short film award for Pariah and then getting the opportunity to turn it into a much praised feature-film, Dee Rees certainly became a director to look out for. Since then she’s directed a TV movie biopic of singer Bessie Smith (starring Queen Latifah), and a couple of episodes of the TV mini-series, When We Rise. Now she’s back with Mudbound, based on Hillary Jordan’s 2008 novel, set in the racially divided Deep South during World War II.
Here’s the synopsis: ‘Set in the rural American South during World War II, Dee Rees’ Mudbound is an epic story of two families pitted against one another by a ruthless social hierarchy, yet bound together by the shared farmland of the Mississippi Delta.
‘Mudbound follows the McAllan family, newly transplanted from the quiet civility of Memphis and unprepared for the harsh demands of farming. Despite the grandiose dreams of Henry (Jason Clarke), his wife Laura (Carey Mulligan) struggles to keep the faith in her husband’s losing venture. Meanwhile, Hap and Florence Jackson (Rob Morgan, Mary J. Blige) — sharecroppers who have worked the land for generations — struggle bravely to build a small dream of their own despite the rigidly enforced social barriers they face.
‘The war upends both families’ plans as their returning loved ones, Jamie McAllan (Garrett Hedlund) and Ronsel Jackson (Jason Mitchell), forge a fast but uneasy friendship that challenges the brutal realities of the Jim Crow South in which they live.’
Mudbound will launch on Netflix and in select cinemas on Friday, November 17th. Take a look at the trailer below.
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