2022 film by Gina Prince-Bythewood
The Woman King is a 2022 fictionalised historical drama depicting the Agojie tribe, and its remarkable all-female warrior regiment in the West African Kingdom of Dahomey. An American action-adventure film set in the 1820s, it stars Viola Davis as a general who trains the next generation of female warriors to fight their enemies. It is directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and written by Dana Stevens, based on a story she wrote with Maria Bello. The film also stars Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, and John Boyega.
Bello conceived the idea for The Woman King in 2015 after visiting Benin, where the kingdom used to be located, and learning the history of the Agojie. She recruited Cathy Schulman to develop it into a feature film, pitching it to several studios, who turned it down due to financial concerns. After they met with TriStar Pictures in 2017, the film was greenlit in 2020. Production began in South Africa in November 2021, shut down due to the COVID-19 Omicron variant a few weeks later, and resumed in early 2022. Polly Morgan was the cinematographer. During post-production, the musical score was composed by Terence Blanchard, and the editing was completed by Terilyn A. Shropshire.
The Woman King had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2022, and Sony Pictures Releasing released the film in theaters in the United States on September 16, 2022. Following the festival screening, the film received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise directed towards Davis's performance and the action choreography. However, it received criticism for historical distortion of slavery. It was named one of the top ten films of 2022 by the American Film Institute and the National Board of Review. At the 28th Critics' Choice Awards the film received nominations for Best Costume Design, Best Acting Ensemble, Best Director, and Best Actress for Davis. Furthermore, Davis also earned Best Actress nominations at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA Film Awards, and NAACP Image Awards.
It was the last film to be distributed by Entertainment One in Canada before the distributor's Canadian division was shut down on June 29, 2022, along with its Spanish distribution shortly before its release.
Plot summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.