David Farnor | On 01, Oct 2020

Radha is a down-on-her-luck NY playwright, who is desperate for a breakthrough before 40. Reinventing herself as rapper RadhaMUSPrime, she vacillates between the worlds of Hip Hop and theater in order to find her true voice.

That the starting point for Radha Blank’s The 40-Year-Old Version, which Netflix picked up earlier this year. The movie, which marks Blank’s feature film directorial debut, co-stars Peter Y. Kim, Oswin Benjamin, Reed Birney, Imani Lewis and TJ Atoms.

The film won the Sundance Film Festival Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic at the start of 2020. Now, it’s heading to Netflix worldwide on Friday 9th October. Here’s the trailer:

 

The Forty-Year-Old Version is available on Netflix UK, as part of an £9.99 monthly subscription.

 

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Netflix nabs Sundance winner The 40-Year-Old Version

6th February 2020

Netflix has acquired the worldwide rights to Radha Blank’s The 40-Year-Old Version.

The film, written and directed by Blank, follows frustrated New Yorker Radha (played by Blank), who, nearing 40 and still struggling as a playwright, turns to a different kind of stage, awakening a rapper alter-ego named RadhaMUSprime. As her revitalized artistic voice blossoms, Radha must learn to juggle her two personas and two unique New York art scenes.

The movie co-stars Peter Y. Kim, Oswin Benjamin, Reed Birney, Imani Lewis and TJ Atoms. It marks Blank’s feature film directorial debut, with Lena Waithe, Jordan Fudge, Inuka Bacote-Capiga, Jennifer Semler and Rishi Rajani producing alongside Blank.

The film premiered at Sundance last weekend, where it won the Sundance Film Festival Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic.

“It took years of trying to get this film made,” says Blank. “It’s my love letter to NY and its struggling artists as well as the NY artistic institutions that raised me – Hip Hop and Theater. I made this film in the spirit of the great NY auteurs who came before me but from an angle not often seen. I’m so very proud of the artisans, many from New York, who helped me craft this movie with such loving and capable hands. As a new member of the Netflix family, I’m excited about the global audience that this film will reach.  I hope it will spark the next generation of fearless filmmakers in ANY part of the world. I’m thrilled that this came together with Netflix.”

The 40-Year-Old Version will be in cinemas and on Netflix later this year.

Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute

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