Daniel Kaluuya is moving behind the camera with his first feature writing credit, a futuristic dystopian drama titled The Kitchen. The Oscar-winning actor co-writes the feature alongside Joe Murtagh (Calm with Horses, Gangs of London) for Netflix.

Set in 2044 London, The Kitchen paints a bleak futuristic world in which the wealth gap between rich and poor has been stretched to its very limit. With all forms of social housing having been eliminated, London’s working class is now forced to live in temporary accommodation on the outskirts of the capital. However, a place called “The Kitchen” is the first and largest of its kind: London’s last village harbouring residents that refuse to move on and move out of the place they call home. The story centres on residents Izi, who is desperate to find a way out, and 12-year-old Benji, who has lost his mother and is searching for a family.

As the cost of living in the UK explodes, this one might be hitting a little too close to home. Kane ‘Kano’ Robinson, best known for his starring role in Netflix’s wildly popular Top Boy series, has been tapped to play Izi. Benji will be played by newcomer Jedaiah Bannerman.

The Kitchen comes from an original idea by Kaluuya, Kibwe Tavares, and Daniel Emmerson. Tavares will helm the project, marking his feature directorial debut. Talking about the inspiration behind the film, Kaluuya recalls: “In 2011, I was in my barbershop and there was a guy boasting about smash and grabs — kids doing million-pound heists in a minute, getting paid £200 to do it. I saw the potential to unlock a unique story door to the inequality, fatherhood, class, joy, resilience, courage, defiance and care of London. Now, nearly a decade later, Kibwe Tavares, Daniel Emmerson and I are about to start production, immersing ourselves in a dystopian London that interrogates what ‘care’ means, at home and as a society and the dangers in our future if we stay indifferent to everything around us.”

The Kitchen will release on Netflix sometime in 2023.