Based on a true story, The Best of Enemies centers on the unlikely relationship between Ann Atwater (Taraji P. Henson), an outspoken civil rights activist, and C.P. Ellis (Sam Rockwell), a local Ku Klux Klan leader who reluctantly co-chaired a community summit, battling over the desegregation of schools in Durham, North Carolina during the racially-charged summer of 1971. The incredible events that unfolded would change Durham and the lives of Atwater and Ellis forever.
Feel-good movies about unlikely interracial pairings during tense times have been around for a while. In the past decade, there’s been the 2011 blockbuster The Help, and more recently, the controversial but award-winning Green Book. But the upcoming drama The Best of Enemies just might top them all for sheer disbelief.
Based on Osha Gray Davidson’s 1996 book The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South, the upcoming movie stars Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell as two people on very, very different sides of the racial divide in 1960s North Carolina: a civil rights activist and a Ku Klux Klan leader. Forced to work together on an education initiative, the unlikely colleagues slowly bridged a seemingly insurmountable gap in a story that would sound like inspirational fiction — if it weren’t all (mostly) true.
The Best of Enemies is a 2019 American drama film directed and written by Robin Bissell in his feature debut. It is based on the book The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South by Osha Gray Davidson, which focuses on the rivalry between civil rights activist Ann Atwater and Ku Klux Klan leader C. P. Ellis. The film stars Taraji P. Henson, Sam Rockwell, Babou Ceesay, Anne Heche, Wes Bentley, Bruce McGill, John Gallagher Jr., and Nick Searcy. It was released in the United States on April 5, 2019, by STX Entertainment. The film was a box office disappointment.
The Best of Enemies (2019)
Directed by: Robin Bissell
Starring: Taraji P. Henson, Sam Rockwell, Wes Bentley, Anne Heche, Alyssa Marie Stilwell, John Gallagher Jr., Bruce McGill, Nicholas Logan, Caitlin Mehner, Jessica Miesel, Rhoda Griffis
Screenplay by: Robin Bissell
Production Design by: Jeannine Oppewall
Cinematography by: David Lanzenberg
Film Editing by: Harry Yoon
Costume Design by: J.R. Hawbaker
Set Decoration by: Jennifer M. Gentile
Art Direction by: Mark Garner
Music by: Marcelo Zarvos
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic material, racial epithets, some violence and a suggestive reference.
Distributed by: STX Entertainment
Release Date: April 5, 2019
Visits: 56
