Nickel Boys

THURSDAY 20th Feb

€10 / €8 (conc.)

Synopsis

Florida, the 1960s. African-American teenager Elwood is sent to the Nickel Academy reform school after being falsely accused of car theft. There, he meets and befriends fellow inmate Turner. Together, the boys dream of freedom as they attempt to endure the abuses inflicted upon them by the school’s cruel officials. The two teenagers’ shared experiences create a bond that will have ramifications for decades to come.

In this extraordinary adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel, director RaMell Ross boldly tells the story almost exclusively from the first-person perspectives of the two main characters. It’s an audacious formal gambit that pays off to stunning effect: this is a vital reckoning with history and one of the best American films of recent years.

Festival & Awards
Toronto International Film Festival 2024

New York Film Festival 2024

Quotes

“Ross has devised an astoundingly effective way to express the relationship between how we see things and what we glean from them.” – David Ehrlich, Indiewire

Nickel Boys is a rare film, a work of artistic daring which takes Whitehead’s novel and unpicks, reassembles and layers it” – Fionnuala Halligan, Screen Daily

“Nickel Boys is an arduous – and also humane and lovely – trek in another’s shoes. It’s an immersion into two lives that evokes the histories of countless more.” – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

Film Info

140 mins | USA | 2024 | Cert: 12A

Director:
RaMell Ross


Cast:
Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Daveed Diggs, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor