Race. Stereotypes. Power.

Director Julius Onah explores these themes in his tense drama LUCE. The film focuses on honor roll student and seeming golden boy, Luce Edgar, whose adoptive parents brought him from war-torn Eritrea to suburban America as a child. One of Luce’s teachers raises red flags and insinuates that violence could be lurking behind a mask of perfection. What follows is a taut thriller that upends expectations and challenges its characters and audiences to confront their biases.

LUCE’s star Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Onah stopped by Angelika New York to discuss how personal the film was for them. Onah, born in Nigeria before moving to the United States, noted his first-hand experience “moving through…life with different masks.” Harrison felt an immediate connection to Luce because he “knew how to code switch” after growing up in a private school in New Orleans.

Harrison felt that educating himself to play Luce, who “does what he needs to survive” and “make himself heard,” empowered him as a young, black man. As Luce, Harrison exudes charm and diffuses any suspicions of wrong-doing with an easy smile daring anyone to contradict his version of the truth.

Onah wanted to explore the gap between the values of equality that Americans proclaim and “the reality that exists,” in which a system of power and privilege decides who deserves humanity. Onah hopes audiences will “stand outside assumptions” and question what they think they know.

LUCE is a must-see film that will keep audiences questioning themselves long after the credits roll. Now playing at Angelika NYC and Angelika Mosaic, and opens Friday 8/16 at Angelika Dallas, Angelika Plano, and Angelika Carmel Mountain.