Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Releasing has picked up Deepa Mehta’s latest film, Funny Boy which is an adaptation of Shyam Selvadurai’s coming-of-age novel Funny Boy. The film will be released on Netflix in the US, UK, New Zealand and Australia on December 10, 2020. It will also be released in select theatres in Canada.
Ava DuVernay took to Twitter to announce about the release of the movie. She tweeted, "When you get to distribute the latest feature film from one of your cinematic heroes, it is a good day. @ARRAYNowwill release FUNNY BOY directed by the indomitable @IamDeepaMehtaon @Netflixand with select theaters on December 10. Wow. An honor. A dream."
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The cast includes Brandon Ingram, Nimmi Harasgama, Ali Kazmi, Agam Darshi, Seema Biswas, Rehan Mudannayake and Shivantha Wijesinha; produced by David Hamilton and Howard Shore who is a three-time Oscar winner. The cinematographer is Douglas Koch and the editor is Teresa Font. The Oscar-nominated Earth and Midnight’s Children director, Deepa Mehta wrote the screenplay for the film alongside Selvadurai
The movie was shot on location in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The film is about Arjie’s (portrayed by Arush Nand/Brandon Ingram) sexual awakening from a young boy to a teenager infatuated by a male classmate, just as political tensions rise between the Sinhalese and Tamils in the years leading up to the 1983 uprisings — violence that led into a 26-year civil war.
During an interview, Mehta told Variety, “All my films are quite political. This was a good fit for me because it’s not just a coming-of-age film. It also deals with the oppression of minorities. Who is the victim? Who is the perpetrator? Where is humanity? It spoke to me on a very human level." She further elaborated about the relevance of the movie in today's world, "The book is 25 years old, but I thought it was completely relevant, and perhaps more relevant today than it was even 25 years ago. It’s too easy to make somebody bad, or somebody good. Life is far more complicated than that. Anyone affected in any civil war of any kind is actually a victim.”
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ARRAY Releasing has released over 25 movies in a short span of time. This film marks the seventh release in 2020 for ARRAY Releasing. Ava DuVernay launched this company in the year 2010 after her debut feature film I Will Follow failed to acquire distribution. She raised funds for her company by holding a 12-hour Rebel-a-thon on Twitter. In the year 2016, ARRAY started a deal partnering with Netflix to distribute their films online. Since then, all ARRAY films have appeared exclusively on Netflix. The company also created the Amanda cinema, which was named after founder Ava DuVernay's aunt. The cinema is exclusively dedicated to showing films by people of colour.
Picture Credits: Janick Laurent/ARRAY
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Khushi Gupta is an intern with SheThePeople.TV
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