''Sweetness in the Belly'' is a 2019

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Zeresenay Berhane Mehari Zeresenay Berhane Mehari (born 1974) is an Ethiopian filmmaker. He is notable as the director of critically acclaimed films ''Difret'' and ''Sweetness in the Belly''. Apart from cinema, he is the co-founder and Head of Original Content for Kana ...

, based on the novel of the same name by

Camilla Gibb Camilla Gibb (born February 20, 1968) is an English-born Canadian writer who currently resides in Toronto. Early life and education Born in London, England, she grew up in Toronto, Ontario, and studied at North Toronto Collegiate Institute and ...

. It had its world premiere at the

2019 Toronto International Film Festival The 44th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 September 2019. The opening gala was the documentary film '' Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band'', directed by Daniel Roher, and the festival closed with a ...

Plot

In the 1960s, Lilly, a British girl, is raised as a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

at a

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

shrine in

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

after being abandoned there by her parents. As a young woman in the early 1970s, she is sent to

Harar Harar (; Harari language, Harari: ሀረር / ; ; ; ), known historically by the indigenous as Harar-Gey or simply Gey (Harari: ጌይ, ݘٛىيْ, ''Gēy'', ), is a List of cities with defensive walls, walled city in eastern Ethiopia. It is al ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

, where she falls in love with a doctor named Aziz, but they are separated when the

Ethiopian Civil War The Ethiopian Civil War was a civil war in Ethiopia and present-day Eritrea, fought between the Ethiopian military junta known as the Derg and Ethiopian-Eritrean anti-government rebels from 12 September 1974 to 28 May 1991. The Derg overthre ...

begins. Lilly escapes as a refugee to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. There she befriends Amina, a traumatized fellow refugee who moves in with her. Lilly works as a nurse's aide at a hospital, where a kind doctor named Robin befriends her, but she resists his romantic interest as she hopes to be reunited with Aziz. She and Amina found an association to aid fellow refugees in reunifying their scattered families. Amina and her two children are reunited with her husband, who has been in an Ethiopian prison, and they move to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, but Lilly is shattered to learn that Aziz was executed. Robin helps her recover and she shares her story with him, telling him that she had been told her parents died of drugs.

Cast

Dakota Fanning Hannah Dakota Fanning (born February 23, 1994) is an American actress. Fanning is known for her roles in blockbuster films and independent features, both as a child actor and as an adult. Her accolades include nominations for a Golden Globe A ...

as Lilly Abdal *

Wunmi Mosaku Oluwunmi Mosaku (; born July 31, 1986) is a Nigerian-born British actress. She is known for her roles as Joy in the BBC Two miniseries '' Moses Jones'' (2009) and Holly Lawson in the ITV series ''Vera'' (2011–2012). She won the BAFTA TV Award ...

as Amina *

Kunal Nayyar Kunal Nayyar (, ; born 30 April 1981) is an actor. He gained recognition with his portrayal of Raj Koothrappali on the CBS sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory'' (2007–2019), and voiced Vijay on the Nickelodeon animated sitcom '' Sanjay and Craig'' ( ...

as Dr. Robin Sathi *

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (; born July 15, 1986) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Black Manta in the superhero films ''Aquaman'' (2018) and '' Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom'' (2023), Bobby Seale in the Netflix historical legal d ...

as Dr. Aziz Abdul Nasser * Estad Tewfik Yusuf Mohamed as The Great Abdel * Edelework Tassew as Gishta *

Zeritu Kebede Zeritu Kebede (born 19 February 1984) is an Ethiopian singer, songwriter, and actress. A prominent figure in modern Ethiopian music, her songs often incorporate rock and gospel music. Early life Zeritu Kebede was born in Addis Ababa on 19 Fe ...

as Nouria *

Yafet Henock Japheth ( ''Yép̄eṯ'', in pausa ''Yā́p̄eṯ''; '; ; ') is one of the three sons of Noah in the Book of Genesis, in which he plays a role in the story of Noah's drunkenness and the curse of Ham, and subsequently in the Table of Nation ...

as Mersha *Rafael Goncalves as Ahmed *Molly McCann as Lilly Mitchell 7 yrs *

Gavin Drea Gavin Drea (born February 1990) is an Irish actor and comedian. He is known for his roles in the RTÉ series ''Love/Hate (TV series), Love/Hate'' (2011), ''Resistance (miniseries), Resistance'' (2019), the BBC drama ''My Mother and Other Stranger ...

as Phillip

Production

In January 2017, it was announced

Saoirse Ronan Saoirse Una Ronan ( ; born 12 April 1994) is an American-born Irish actress. Primarily known for her work in period dramas, she has received various accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, with nominations for four Academy Awards and sev ...

had joined the cast of the film, with

directing from a screenplay by Laura Phillips, based upon the novel of the same name by Camilla Gibb. In November 2018, it was announced

and

joined the cast of the film, with Fanning replacing Ronan.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

began in November 2018, in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. Production on the film also took place in

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

on September 7, 2019. In April 2020,

Gravitas Ventures Gravitas Ventures is an American film distribution company owned by Shout! Studios. The company was founded by Nolan Gallagher in Los Angeles in 2006, and moved its headquarters from Los Angeles to Cleveland in 2019. It focuses on the distribu ...

acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film, and set it for a May 8, 2020, release.

Entertainment One Lionsgate Canada is a Canadian entertainment company and a subsidiary of Lionsgate Studios. Based in Toronto, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition and production of films and television series. The company began on June 1, 1973 ...

will distribute in Canada.

Reception

''Sweetness in the Belly'' holds approval rating on review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, based on reviews, with an average of . The film received backlash for

portraying the lead role in the film. Amid

whitewashing Whitewash is a paint-like covering of hydrated lime or a cheap white paint. Whitewash or whitewashing may also refer to: Racist practices * Whitewashing (beauty), modifying the skin tones of photographs of nonwhite people in mass media * Whitew ...

allegations, Fanning took to social media to share more details about her character. "Just to clarify. In the new film I'm part of, ''Sweetness in the Belly'', I do not play an Ethiopian woman", the actress wrote in a message on her

Instagram Story Instagram is an American photo and short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters, be organized by hashtags, and be associated with a location via ...

. "I play a British woman abandoned by her parents at seven years old in Africa and raised Muslim."

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 6489562 2019 films Films set in London Films shot in Ethiopia Films shot in Ireland Irish drama films English-language Canadian films Canadian drama films HanWay Films films Lionsgate Canada films Screen Ireland films Race-related controversies in film Casting controversies in film 2010s English-language films 2010s Canadian films