Behind The Lens: The Last Tree

BEHIND THE LENS: THE LAST TREE

Words by Luc Hinson
Artwork by Tom Shotton

Directed by Shola Amoo, THE LAST TREE is the semi-autobiographical story of Femi, a British boy of Nigerian heritage who, after being fostered in rural Lincolnshire, moves to inner-city London to live with his birth mother. In his teens, Femi struggles with the culture and values of his new environment. Femi must decide which path to adulthood he wants to take, and what it means to be a young black man in London during the early 00s. We caught up with Shola ahead of the film's release in cinemas on the 27th September to find out his inspirations and motivation behind the film.

Interview Excerpts

BB: The Last Tree premiered at Sundance earlier this year, a huge achievement in itself. How’s life been since the premiere for you?
SA: Sundance was an exhilarating ride. Post that, it’s been very interesting. We had our European Premiere at Sundance London in Picturehouse Central, which is a bitesize version of the Utah programme, and it was very satisfying to see the film with a UK audience for the first time. Generally, life’s been very busy; I’ll be doing a Q&A tour across several cities in the UK ahead of the nationwide release on the 27th September. Then I’ll be travelling around Europe for festivals. I’ve also been slowly developing the projects I would like to work on next.

BB: What was your motivation behind filming The Last Tree? And why now?
SA: The Last Tree is semi-autobiographical, so elements of the narrative are lifted from personal experience. I also met up with other Nigerians who had been through the process of foster care and fused their stories with my own to create a new reality. At the heart, it’s a question about identity, and I think this is one of the most pertinent questions to engage with as an individual, and certainly as a nation.

What do you hope to achieve through your films?
SA: I feel like I’m in the business of propagating alternative ideologies. The idea of subverting the meta narrative with stories that reveal a different perspective to the status quo. This is true of the form and content because if the themes in the story are playing to this idea of subversion, then so should the aesthetic language around it.

BB: What do you want the audience of The Last Tree to come away with?
SA: I hope to take people through an immersive journey, an odyssey if you will, through the eyes of a young black British male of Nigerian descent, as he navigates questions of identity and belonging in starkly different landscapes. The aesthetic approach we took is designed to put you in our protagonist’s shoes so the audience experiences the world from his singular perspective and therefore challenge their own.

BB: What would you describe as the biggest contributing factor to your identity?
SA: I grew up immersed in counter culture. I feel my generation was the last to grow up in a subculture that existed offline, and I’ve always been intrigued by the effects of that. The idea of isolation and the special moments when you could recognize yourself in someone else at gigs and the little tokens of tribalism. I think it fostered a real underdog streak and a strong backbone.

BB: What does home mean to you?
SA: Home is the place where all my identities feel at ease with one another.

BB: Is your own identity consciously reflected in your work? Are the two tied together?
SA: Yes, I would say so. In a way, every film is semi-autobiographical, and if you’re in the business of propagating subversive ideas, an understanding of where you are situated societally, a self-awareness, is key. We’re always in a dialogue with societal projections and stereotypes. As a black male, there’s no escaping that, so why not play with it.

BB: What does Britishness mean to you in the 21st century?
SA: To me, it’s completely linked to diaspora and cultures far away from these shores, that have fused with a certain idea of Britishness, if there is such a thing, to ultimately create something new. What that new thing is, I’m not quite sure, as it’s still evolving, and we’re in an interesting moment in the UK that is absolutely challenging whatever ideas we may have previously held.

BB: What does the rest of 2019 hold for Shola Amoo & The Last Tree?
SA: It looks like being on the road, on a tour with the film across the country. This is cool because growing up, all I wanted to do was be in a band. That’s the great thing about cinema; it’s the amalgamation of all my interests: literature, music, fashion, art, and politics.

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"WE’RE ALWAYS IN A DIALOGUE WITH SOCIETAL PROJECTIONS AND STEREOTYPES. AS A BLACK MALE, THERE’S NO ESCAPING THAT, SO WHY NOT PLAY WITH IT."