Amma Asante’s fulfilled one long-time dream when A United Kingdom opened this year's London Film Festival. With Where Hands Touch, a passion project she’s been trying to get off the ground for many years, the writer/director is ticking another box. The period drama has added Abbie Cornish, Christopher Eccleston and The Childhood Of A Leader’s young star Tom Sweet to its cast.
Set in 1944 in Berlin, Where Hands Touch’s central characters are a biracial German teenager and a Hitler Youth cadet played by The Hunger Games’ Amandla Stenberg and George MacKay respectively. The story charts a forbidden love affair blooming amid the dying embers of the Third Reich.
No word on Cornish, Sweet and Eccleston’s exact roles yet, though it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the latter channelling some Dark Elf into the part of an equally accursed Nazi.
“I have been an absolute fan of Abbie Cornish and Chris Eccleston for some time,” enthuses Asante, “and I am delighted to welcome Tom Sweet to my cast."
The film’s shoot gets underway in Belgium this week, with a script written by Asante. Her next film, A United Kingdom, makes its bow in the UK on 25 November. Pick up the new issue of Empire – onsale now – for a panoramic behind-the-scenes photo album of the shoot curated by the director herself.