Ahead of its global premiere at the AFI Fest in Hollywood in November, the Lena Waithe-produced Queen & Slim has unveiled a new trailer.
During Complex's set visit over the summer, Waithe spoke on the comparisons some have made to Bonnie & Clyde and Thelma & Louise, praising both classics but offering up another reference point.
"Bonnie & Clyde changed the conversation. Thelma & Louise is iconic," Waithe said. "But the thing that they aren't realizing is another reference for me would be Set It Off. In terms of black people being at a very difficult place with their back being against the wall and nothing that they [can] do [but] to keep going."
The film, directed by Melina Matsoukas from Waithe's script, centers on a couple whose first Tinder date gives way to what's previously been described as a cinematic love letter to "black people who have lost their lives to police brutality."
The film stars Daniel Kaluuya, Jodie Turner-Smith, Flea, Sturgill Simpson, Chloë Sevigny, Bokeem Woodbine, and more.
Speaking with Complex, Kaluuya recalled how shooting the film's opening scene in Cleveland was "really triggering" for him. "It kind of messed me up a little bit. It was dark, being in that space," he said. "We are so desensitized to that imagery of black people being beaten up by the police that you don't realize that if you [are] beaten up by somebody, you can't actually beat back. I can't beat him up. That's crazy. It's very intimate to me."
See Queen & Slim in theaters Nov. 27.
