"A further dive into the satellite world of Klein who stars and writes this fantasy musical set in a care home. Equal parts Nigerian B-movie gospel, Andrew Lloyd Webber and experimental everything."
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See event details
A
event
held at The Cube
on Sunday 17th October. The event starts at 16:00.
Care is the feature length adaptation of Klein's ICA commissioned musical from 2018, and is an autobiography, musical, animation and diary entry that explores the social care system, friendship and angst through the eyes of Abike (played by Klein) who's been moved from foster home to foster home and what happens when her sister goes missing. It is an ambitious feature film debut which is written, directed, edited and scored by Klein.
With a small UK Arts Council budget to produce a film version, Klein rethought the project. "I had to sit with myself for a bit and I started to dig deeper because I was then able to think about my life and then eventually the story took form." Directed, scored by and starring Klein, this 'Care' ditches the songs but has many stylistic echoes of her music , cutting together footage from handheld, phone and laptop cameras with TikTok clips and memes. Dialogue breaks free from the visuals or loops; the viewpoint wanders away from the action and minutes blur in to years.
"In that film pretty much 80 per cent is kind of real and 20 per cent is like when you watch reality TV, it's scripted reality. That's my house, these are my friends. OK, Fred (an appearance via video call by US poet and theorist Fred Moten)is not really my Dad but he's what I wish my Dad was like. A lot of the music and the sounds that I put in match how I'm feeling. That's how I see the world with music and all this, because I still quite removed from the world that I exist in."
Filmed throughout the Spring of 2021, the film features, amongst others, an ensemble of street casted kids as well as the musicians Mica Levi & Kwake Bass, grime MCs Musti & Kibo and the poet and scholar Fred Moten, who plays Abike's father. Illustrations are by Evie O'Connor.