“Hunger Games” vet Amandla Stenberg continues to add to her stacked resume. According to Variety, the teen will star in “Belle” helmer Amma Asante’s next feature, a romance set against the backdrop of WWII Germany. “Where Hands Touch” centers on the (no doubt controversial and complex) relationship between a 17-year-old mixed-race German girl (Stenberg) and a 19-year-old German soldier. Protagonist Pictures boarded the project at Cannes.
“I’m always involved in my head in stories that are to do with identity, and how we fit in, and where do we find belonging, and how do we define ourselves,” said BAFTA-winner Asante. She described her worry about finding “a young enough actress who was also emotionally broad enough to take on some of the aspects” of the “complex and nuanced story.” She found “the actress who … [could] carry this film” in Stenberg, whose credits include “Columbiana,” “Rio 2,” and the upcoming Black Lives Matter-inspired “The Hate U Give.”
Stenberg and Asante first got in touch with the former contacted the latter via Twitter regarding a project on feminism. Asante recalled, “It just grabbed my attention. Here was this young, smart woman who was so on the money with her observations, socially and politically; she is so understanding of the intersection… what it is to be a black female.”
Stenberg has used her social media accounts to tackle cultural appropriation and sexism. The multi-talented actress has released two shorts she directed, and she co-wrote a series for Stranger Comics about a hybrid elf-human warrior, “Niobe: She Is Life.” “I think it’s the first comic book that has a black female writer and a black female illustrator and a black female lead, so it’s really exciting,” described Stenberg.
Asante hopes “Where Hands Touch” will begin filming this September. She recently finished editing “A United Kingdom,” an interracial romance starring David Oyelowo (“Selma”) and Rosamund Pike (“Gone Girl”) that takes place in British-colonized Africa.