The Strays director on true story that inspired new Netflix film

"[It] was about a woman who essentially was denying the fact that she had two Black children," he explained in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com.

"[She also] had two children, who were very fair-skinned and almost white-passing, and this woman was biracial. And I was just really struck by the kind of complexities of that, like, what would make somebody feel like they had to erase their past and deny it?"

He added: "I had a really interesting conversation with my mum about generational trauma – she's also biracial – and she was sort of talking to me about her experiences as a biracial woman and kind of traversing different cultures and classes and sometimes being perceived as almost white and kind of how people would treat her.

"And then the odd sort of slip, and then there's a microaggression or something, which actually is quite offensive, or quite shocking."

The year Martello-White heard this story – which was also the year he first saw Get Out – he was doing the BFI Network program in conjunction with the London Film Festival and Black Star, and the central question he was repeatedly asked was: What should your first feature film be?

"And I sort of came away from that experience being like, it had to be something really personal that sort of explored race in a really complex way but also have a genre element to it that kind of made it more universal and far-reaching," he said.

Star Ashley Madekwe explained that Martello-White had told the cast the same story that he'd heard from his mum, and added that "the idea of generational trauma, I think, is really key".

Meanwhile, Jorden Myrie – who stars as Marvin in the film – revealed that the script had instantly stood out to him as unique when he first read it.

"Instantly I thought it's something very different to what we're used to seeing, especially I think in a UK film," he said. "It's a genre piece, and that's not usually made in the UK, that's usually something you associate with America.

"So to have that here and then for it to be a cast with actors of colour as well, it just made me really excited and wanted to be a part of it."

The Strays is released on Netflix on Wednesday 22nd February 2023. Sign up for Netflix from £6.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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