Akilla's Escape
Akilla Brown is 40 years old, and for the first time in his life, the clandestine cannabis-growing operation he runs is legitimate. Only one year into government-approved legalization, the pendulum of hypocrisy takes a toll, and Akilla decides to cash out. While making a routine delivery on a cool summer night, destiny takes an unexpected turn when Akilla confronts a firestorm of masked youths in an armed robbery. In the aftermath of the heist, Akilla captures one of the thieves, a mute 15-year-old boy named Sheppard.
Upon learning the bandits are affiliated with the Garrison Army, a Jamaican crime syndicate his grandfather founded, Akilla is forced to reckon with a cycle of violence he thought he had escaped.
Cast
- Clinton
- Ronnie Rowe Jr.
- Thetis
- Oluniké Adeliyi
- Faye
- Donisha Prendergast
- Prince
- Vic Mensa
- Sheppard and Young Akilla
- Thamela Mpumlwana
- Akilla Brown
- Saul Williams
Akilla's Escape
Charles Officer
- Fiction
- Production Country / Year
- Canada, United States 2020
- Language
- engl. OF ohne UT
- Format
- DCP, Color, 90min
2.39:1, Discrete 5.1
Director & Crew
Charles Officer
Born in Toronto/Canada in 1976. Studied Communication Design at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) before becoming a professional ice hockey player in the UK. Active as writer, actor and director.
Filmography
| 2008 | Nurse.fighter.boy | Spielfilm | |
| 2012 | Mighty Jerome | Dokumentarfilm | |
| 2017 | Unarmed Verses | Dokumentarfilm | |
| 2018 | Invisible Essence: The Little Prince | Dokumentarfilm | |
| 2020 | Akilla’s Escape | Spielfilm | 2021 |
“AKILLA’S ESCAPE was born from my passion to expose a vicious cycle of violence that has devastated and debilitated young Black boys for generations. I wanted to delve deeper into this epidemic and create a character study framed within a crime noir that spans Jamaica, New York, and Toronto. I wanted to connect the genesis of Jamaican gang culture at the height of political unrest during the late 1970s and reference the historic role political factions have played in the sustainability of criminal organizations and the ways they continue that role to this day.”
- Writer
- Motion
- Charles Officer
- Director of Photography
- Maya Bankovic
- Editor
- Andres Landau
- Production Designer
- Diana Abbatangelo
- Costume Designer
- Jeannette Linton
- Casting Director
- Nicole Hilliard-Forde
- Music Composer
- Saul Williams
- Executive Producer
- Michael A. Levine
- Karen Wookey
- Martin F. Katz