Programme
Index Screening schedule

Luce

Julius Onah, USA 2019, 109’
Polish premiere
Give Me Liberty Sword of Trust

Based on J.C. Lee’s controversial stage play, Julius Onah’s film discusses racial prejudice and status. With the help of outstanding actors, including Naomi Watts and Tim Roth playing a privileged couple who, many years earlier, decided to adopt a little boy from war-torn Eritrea. The former child soldier who survived hell is turning into a popular and exemplary pupil (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). They want you to win, a says a friend of his who can’t expect any special treatment. And only one of his teachers (Octavia Spencer), alarmed by his essay, doesn’t seem entirely convinced that Luce has completely forgotten his traumatic past. In Onah’s third film—shot following the thriller The Cloverfield Paradox—the director patiently scrapes away a fresh layer of paint from the famous American Dream in order to find out what it really means today—and if everyone can really afford it.

Marta Bałaga

Julius Onah

Born in Nigeria in 1983, Julius Onah is a director who currently lives in New York. He studied at the Tisch School of the Arts. Filmmaker magazine included him on its list of “25 new faces of independent film.” Alicja Bachleda-Curuś starred in his debut film, The Girl Is in Trouble, and his short film Don’t Look Back, an award winner at the Cameraimage festival, is set in Łódź. His latest drama, Luce, starring Naomi Watts and Octavia Spencer, among others, premiered at Sundance.

Filmography

2004 Nigger (short)

2008 Nie patrz wstecz / Don’t Look Back (short)

2015 The Girl Is in Trouble

2018 Paradoks Cloverfield / The Cloverfield Paradox

2019 Luce

Cast & Crew

director Julius Onah
screenplay J.C. Lee, Julius Onah
cinematography Larkin Seiple
editing Madeleine Gavin
music Geoff Barrow, Ben Salisbury
cast Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, Tim Roth, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Norbert Leo Butz
producer John Baker, Julius Onah, Andrew Yang
production Dream Factory Group, Altona Filmhaus
sales UIP/Universal
language English
coloration colour
stay in touch
festival partners