The full trailer of the highly-anticipated film The Hate U Give has debuted at the BET Awards over the weekend.
The movie follows Starr Carter, a 16-year-old, who lives in a predominantly African American neighbourhood named Garden Heights and attends a prestigious prep school – full of rich, mostly white students. Initially, Starr balances her life by disowning her ethnicity at Williamsons – “When I’m here, I’m Starr Version 2. Basically, Williamsons Starr doesn’t give anyone a reason to call her ghetto and I hate myself for doing that.”
During the weekends, Starr feels like she can be herself.
This difficult balance crumbles after she witnesses her unarmed friend being shot dead by a police officer when they are pulled over on their way home from a party. News of Khalil‘s death spread across the country in national headlines – many of which are derogatory.
Starr, the only witness, has the power to decide the fate of the policeman all while feeling the pressure from both sides of her community.
The film is based on the New York Times best-selling novel of the same name by Angie Thomas. Thomas wrote the novel in response to the 2009 shooting of Oscar Grant – a 22-year-old unarmed Black man fatally shot by a police officer in California.
In 2013, the international activist movement Black Lives Matter was founded – an organisation built to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.
The incredible cast includes Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games, Everything Everything, Columbiana) as Starr, Algee Smith as Khalil, Regina Hall, Common, Anthony Mackie, and Riverdale’s K.J Apa just to name a few.
You can watch the trailer, below
The Hate U Give will land in cinemas October 19, 2018.
