The Harder They Fall to open the 65th BFI London… | Little White Lies

Festivals

The Hard­er They Fall to open the 65th BFI Lon­don Film Festival

04 Aug 2021

Words by Adam Woodward

Four people in 19th century-style Western outfits standing in a dusty outdoor setting with a white wooden building.
Four people in 19th century-style Western outfits standing in a dusty outdoor setting with a white wooden building.
Jeymes Samuel’s out­law west­ern will receive its world pre­mière at the fes­ti­val in October.

This year’s BFI Lon­don Film Fes­ti­val looks set to be one of the most excit­ing yet. South Bank and the West End are back in action fol­low­ing 2020’s vir­tu­al edi­tion, and the fes­ti­val will con­tin­ue expand­ing its reach to all cor­ners of the UK with a host of screen­ings and events tak­ing place at part­ner cin­e­mas and on BFI Play­er. We’ll be bring­ing you full details of the pro­gramme in due course, but today the fes­ti­val organ­is­ers have revealed the Open­ing Night Gala – and it looks like an absolute cracker.

Lon­don-born mul­ti-hyphen­ate Jeymes Samuel, aka The Bul­litts, will unveil his start-stud­ded revenge west­ern They Hard­er They Fall at South­bank Centre’s Roy­al Fes­ti­val Hall on Wednes­day 6 Octo­ber. Described by Fes­ti­val Direc­tor Tri­cia Tut­tle as ​“light­ning-paced, wit­ty and phe­nom­e­nal­ly enter­tain­ing”, the film packs a punchy cast in the shape of Idris Elba, Jonathan Majors, Regi­na King, Zazie Beetz, Del­roy Lin­do, LaKei­th Stan­field and Damon Wayans Jr.

Get more Lit­tle White Lies

Three men wearing cowboy hats and Western attire stand in a town square with historical buildings in the background.

Bor­row­ing its title from Jim­my Cliff’s 1972 reg­gae anthem ​‘The Hard­er They Come’, Samuel’s debut fea­ture boasts orig­i­nal music by none oth­er than Jay‑Z, who pre­vi­ous­ly hand-picked the writer/​director to serve as exec­u­tive music super­vi­sor on Buz Luhrmann’s The Great Gats­by. Giv­en that the pulse-quick­en­ing first trail­er is sound­tracked by anoth­er Black musi­cal leg­end, Fela Kuti, The Hard­er They Fall is unequiv­o­cal­ly and emphat­i­cal­ly a cel­e­bra­tion of Black tal­ent and artistry.

This world pre­mière will take place simul­ta­ne­ous­ly at cin­e­mas across the UK before the film lands on Net­flix on 3 Novem­ber fol­low­ing a UK the­atri­cal release. Samuel had this to say about the announce­ment: ​“Grow­ing up in the UK, the LFF has always been the high­light of my year and I couldn’t have imag­ined any­thing bet­ter than to have my debut film includ­ed in this year’s line-up.”

The 65th BFI Lon­don Film Fes­ti­val in part­ner­ship with Amer­i­can Express takes place from 6 – 17 Octo­ber. For more info vis­it bfi​.org​.uk/​l​o​n​d​o​n​-​f​i​l​m​-​f​e​s​tival

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