SOUTH LARK

One fine day…

RYE LANE

DIRECTOR RAINE ALLEN-MILLER STARRING VIVIAN

OPARAH, DAVID JONSSON ETA 17 MARCH

It’s about two people that meet at the wrong time, but it works out that it’s actually the perfect time,” says Raine Allen-Miller of her debut feature, a romantic comedy set over one eventful day across South London. Dom (Industry’s David Jonsson) and Yas (Vivian Oparah) meet in a gallery while reeling from bad breakups, their very different personalities gelling as they help each other deal with their nightmare exes. Citing influences for Rye Lane as more Spike Lee and

Edgar Wright than Richard Curtis, Allen-Miller has lived all over South London and was keen to represent the area with a lighter touch than it usually receives onscreen. “With South London in film and TV,” she says, “and Black London, for lack of a better phrase, it’s this thing where it’s grimy street culture, difficult lives with single parents, crime, all that kind of stuff. I felt it was important to make something that did have Black people as leads, but they’re just being happy and normal. That is my experience [of South London].”

“I’ve enjoyed shows like Top Boy,” she continues, “but I think it’s almost exoticised council estate culture to a certain degree. And as somebody that’s grown up on an estate,

I just think it’s a bit boring now. Obviously, life isn’t always easy, but I really wanted this film to live in the same kind of cinematic world as films like Before Sunrise, Juno or (500) Days of Summer.”

If you’re looking to a benchmark like Before Sunrise, you need very appealing leads. “Vivian and David blew me away in quite different ways,” Allen-Miller says of her stars. “Vivian is just hilarious and challenging in a really good way. David is so charming. He’s got that Marlon Brando presence.”