African skinhead Despite the fact that Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje was born in London, but he was born into a family of Nigerian students and his life can not be called simple. At a very young age, the parents had to give the boy to a foster family together with his two sisters, which, by the way, was a common practice at that time, when parents from Africa could not support their children, and therefore gave them to English families, paying them for parenting services. Because of his race, Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje was often attacked by local gangs when the British skinhead movement began to form. But Akinnouye-Agbaje was able to overcome all the difficulties and even later received a bachelor’s degree at the University of London, working at this time in a clothing store, then he got acquainted with the model world. And then everything went according to the familiar scheme: casting agents drew the attention of Akinnouye-Agbaj and thanks to his powerful stature and ferocious facial expression, many viewers remembered Adewale for small but expressive roles in the films 'Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls (1995) and The Mummy Returns (2001)
And in 2012, Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje announced that he was starting to prepare his own film project based on his biography, where Akinnouye-Agbaje himself would write the script and then direct it. And six years later, that is, in 2018, at the Toronto International Film Festival, the film called Farming, and in our adapted translation, Education was presented to the general public. And despite the rather heavy theme of racism raised in "Education", the film received mostly neutral critical reviews and received limited release, released in the UK and the United States only a year after the official premiere. Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje himself in his biopic embodied the image of his own father, and the company of famous persons was Guga Mbatha-Row, who played the sympathetic and heartfelt teacher of the main character, and Kate Beckinsale in the role of a foster mother with gypsy roots and a rather tough character. You can also note John Duglish, who is more of a theater actor, and in "Education" he played the leader of a gang of skinheads.
And the main role of a young man named Enitan was approved 27-year-old Damson Idris, who, like Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje was born in London, but has Nigerian descent. And it all starts with Enitan being put in foster care. The boy’s stay in it is revealed quite sparingly, even though in this storyline the central place is given to Kate Beckinsale. But the main background then comes the story of Enitan, when he is attacked by a gang of local skinheads. Enitan tries to resist them and eventually gradually enters their circle, accepting the conventions of their subculture. And this is really shocking, because the main character of “Education” because of his race can not seem to us a champion of the ideas of white supremacy, but something quite different happens. And even though skinheads in Education are not as ideological as we understand it, in any case the story of Enitan does not fit into our well-established ideas. So there's some shock content in 'Education'.
Of course, we are very sorry for Enitan, who decided to assert himself in the most unpleasant and cruel form, but still Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje failed to make his picture deep and hard, with all due respect to the actor. "Nurturing" does not have the proper shocking naturalism, as it was in "Skins" (1992) starring Russell Crowe. It lacked the depth of the dramaturgy that made everyone nervous in American History X (1998) with Edward Norton. And there is no stubborn, even frenzied commitment to the idioms of the skinhead subculture as in Fanatic (2001) with Ryan Gosling. That’s what’s missing from the emotional point of view. But Damson Idris and John Duglish please with their convincing performance, especially Duglish, who managed to reveal his character from different sides, who gradually became more and more repulsive because of his qualities. But Kate Beckinsale, although she does not have much screen time, surprises with the same type and banal transmission of her heroine. And Gugu Mbatha-Row once again plays a very kind and honest girl, so little new can be seen in her image.
It is clear that based on real events, the film autobiography of Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje evokes a different range of emotions, but for the most part they are caused by this surprise, because the main character of "Education" and skinheads are clearly opponents, not allies, but the film is incredible. And yet, with everything else, however much Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje tries to convey his dramatic story, there are certain difficulties. In many of the characteristics of the film, there is not enough depth, and the presentation itself feels some rough, but also straightforward. And too rough editing of "Education" makes the picture also some kind of distant from the artistic production.
5 out of 10