No More Wings
Two lifelong friends meet up at their favourite fried chicken shop in South London. The meeting comes at a crucial point in their lives as they move onto a new path, maybe without wings.
Isaac and Jude are two boys from the same area in South London. They go to the same school, hang out at the same chicken shop everyday and are into the same girls. But in adulthood, their lives take different directions.
Level-headed Isaac is excited to share his big news with the disenfranchised Jude - that he's bought a house and is moving to East London - but Jude does not receive the news as well as he hopes.
The enchanting tale of friendship treads between both past and present as their 15 and 25-year old selves dine in the chicken shop, touching on both shattered dreams, success and whether the decisions of the past have lifelong consequences.
(N.B. The film is also available without subtitles.)
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Abraham AdeyemiDirector
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Abraham AdeyemiWriterClosure, Therapy
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Abiola RufaiProducer
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Ivanno JeremiahKey Cast"Adult Isaac"Humans, The Flood, Untitled Game of Thrones Prequel
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Parys JordonKey Cast"Adult Jude"
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Joshua CameronKey Cast"Young Isaac"
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Parys JordonKey Cast"Young Jude"
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Fiona LampteyExecutive ProducerEntitled (short), Tickle Monster (short), Channel 4 Random Acts, He Took His Skin Off for Me (short)
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Abraham AdeyemiExecutive Producer
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Project Type:Short
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Runtime:10 minutes 35 seconds
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Completion Date:September 18, 2019
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Production Budget:21,639 GBP
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Country of Origin:United Kingdom
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Country of Filming:United Kingdom
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital, Arri Alexa
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Aspect Ratio:2:39
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:No
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Tribeca Film FestivalNew York City, New York
United States
April 19, 2020
World Premiere
Narrative Short winner -
We Are One Global Film FestivalWorldwide
May 29, 2020
Official Selection -
The Shortlist Film FestivalLos Angeles, California
United States
August 6, 2020
Audience Award -
Encounters Film FestivalBristol
United Kingdom
September 18, 2020
IMDB Pro UK Audience Award -
Aesthetica Film FestivalYork
United Kingdom
November 3, 2020
Official Selection -
Raindance Film FestivalLondon
United Kingdom
October 28, 2020
London Premiere
Official Selection -
Indy Fest by Heartland FilmIndianapolis
United States
July 21, 2020
Official Selection -
Short Cuts Film FestivalConneticut
United States
October 8, 2020
Official Selection -
London Short Film FestivalLondon
United Kingdom
January 15, 2021
Official Selection
Abraham Adeyemi is an award-winning writer-director and playwright, hailing from South London. He graduated in Creative Writing from Birkbeck University of London, followed by completing the prestigious Royal Court’s Writers Group.
His works for stage have played at a number of British theatres including the Hammersmith Lyric and Theatre Royal Stratford East. His play These Minging Streets was long-listed for the Alfred Fagon Award in 2018, a play that began its journey as a short play starring Jude Law.
His past short films, Therapy and Closure, were screened at a number of festivals, including the BFI Future Film Festival and Bafta-qualifying Carmarthen Bay Film Festival respectively.
In 2019 he was a winner of Soho House’s global screenwriting competition Script House, subsequently receiving a grant to make his winning short film script No More Wings. His debut full-length play All the Shit I Can’t Say to my Dad was staged at London theatre The Bunker.
Most recently, his directorial debut No More Wings received the Best Narrative Short Award at Tribeca Film Festival 2020 and is now an Oscar-qualifying film. It also received the audience award at The Wrap's Shortlist Film Festival.
He is currently on commission with Channel 4 developing an original pilot as part of their 4Screenwriting programme and is developing an original drama with ITV Studios.
No More Wings is a nostalgic love letter to my adolescence, fried chicken shops and the noughties. The idea is one I’ve wanted to explore for a few years, inspired by two estranged childhood friends of mine and imagining what a present day meeting between them might be like.
The idea is close to my heart and has lived in my mind for a few years, trying to decide which medium to tell it through, when the right time would come to tell it and trying to find that spark that would it as compelling and engaging to an audience in the way it does to me as a filmmaker. I’ve always known there was something there with this story that would make it compelling, these two characters, but always found it difficult to articulate this. So, in some ways, I guess it’s apt that it would be my directorial debut; a story which nobody could tell but myself.
The protagonists are two black men both born and raised in South London, who had the privilege of attending a grammar school in a neighbouring borough. The best of both worlds, if you will. With similar family backgrounds and circumstances – both raised in single parent homes – and both intelligence and privilege on their side, their lives could not have turned out more differently.
On the surface it would be simple to consider the two characters in binaries; good and bad, success and failure, inspiring and lacklustre. I consider nuance to be a key component in the film, in understanding these character’s goals and ambitions, shortcomings and obstacles and how they’ve subsequently arrived at where we meet them.
It was also important to explore the political standing of the chicken shop and champion their significance within the community. The majority of depictions I have seen of chicken shops have been comedic and I wanted to explore a more serious, sombre and honest story within the space. As a society we are not strangers to seeing significant conversations taking place over food and the chicken shop is no different. Furthermore, it was an opportunity for me to pay homage to the real-life chicken shop Morley’s – which is the location we shot in – a South London legend which is a character in itself, a cult hero and holds a legacy that will live far longer than myself. The meaning of chicken shops to these communities is powerful; there is a reason why they endured the London riots in 2011 intact, with the communities being aware that they are a part of them.
Like all stories I tell my ambition was for it to tell a heartfelt, universal story that all audiences can relate to. My hope was that it would be omre than just a conversation between two friends, a magical nostalgic experience that juxtaposes the past and the present to give the audience introspection into these two lives, and indicates where their journeys may go beyond this point.