'The Forty-Year-Old Version': Meet Radha Blank and Oswin Benjamin, stars of Netflix's award-winning black-and-white dramedy
Actress and filmmaker Radha Blank is back with yet another film, titled, 'The Forty-Year-Old Version'. The comedy-drama had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2020, where Blank won the US Dramatic Competition Directing Award. Blank will not just be stealing the show with her acting skills but will surely be winning hearts with the tremendous scripting she has done for the film which will release on October 9 on Netflix.
The film also stars Peter Kim and hip-hop performer Oswin Benjamin, who made his feature film acting debut. The film is shot entirely on 35mm black and white film by cinematographer Eric Branco, who shot 'Clemency,' which won the US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival 2020. The film is produced by Inuka Bacote, Jennifer Semler and Jordan Fudge. Rishi Rajani and Trevite Willis are set to executive produce the film.
The official synopsis of the film reads, "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."
Radha Blank
Radha Blank, who is a proud Native New Yorker, performer and writer for TV, stage and film, stars as the main lead in 'The Forty-Year-Old Version'. Radha's TV writing work includes 'The Get Down' (Netflix), 'Empire' (FOX) and 'She's Gotta Have It' (Netflix), where she has worked as a producer and writer for two seasons. She co-wrote the screen adaptation of Walter Dean Myers's best-selling novel 'Monster'.
Blank was a fellow for both the 2017 Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Labs with her original screenplay 'The Forty-Year-Old Version' (FYOV), which won The 2017 Adrienne Shelly Women's Filmmaker Award and The 2018 Maryland Film Festival Producers Club Award. In the film, she has played the role of emcee RadhaMUSprime, whose brand of Hip Hop comedy, sells out shows from New York to Norway. She is currently writing the feature film script for Malcolm Lee's latest Universal Pictures comedy "Real Talk".
In her knockout feature debut, 'The Forty-Year-Old Version', Blank is a magnetic woman to root for, as she bears the vulnerability that is inspiring, funny, and dripping with honesty, this comedic gem represents what 40 really looks like, no less scared, but very irresistible,
Oswin Benjamin
Oswin Benjamin marked his acting debut with the film. 30-year-old Benjamin uses his lyrical skills to share the triumphs and harsh realities of life. The rapper was born in Brooklyn and raised in Newburgh, New York. In a 2013 interview with DZI: The voice, he said, "The music that I make means so much to me, and I feel like the people that relate will gravitate to it and the people that don’t, that’s just a part of being an artist, coming to terms with the fact that not everyone will understand or “feel you”. All I can do is be me and pray to God that the people accept that."
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