In the United States, "The Hate U Give" aims to inspire dialogue on racism.

TORONTO (Reuters) – The new movie "The Hate U Give" has drawn attention to police shootings against black men who have shaken the United States in recent years.

The film tells the story of a black teenager, Starr, who attends an elite school, mostly white, but whose life is shaken by the murder of his best childhood friend by a white policeman. a road check.

Starr, played by Amandla Stenberg, must fight to be at the center of racial tension following the death of her friend while facing gang activity in her neighborhood.

George Tillman Jr., the director of the film, said the film's purpose was to deal with all the complex issues and conversations around racial injustice that gave birth to the Black Lives Matter movement.

"We hope the idea is to inspire and create a dialogue," he said at a press conference Saturday at the Toronto Film Festival, where the film was presented in world premiere.

"The Hate U Give" won critical acclaim and is the second film of the Toronto festival, with "Monsters and Men", to focus on police brutality.

The film goes on with "an intelligent and absorbing certainty across the desperately dangerous and uneven terrain of racially divided America," said Variety, the Hollywood specialty publication, in its review.

Stenberg said the film addresses racism in different ways and that Starr's character is more nuanced than some other portrayals of young black women in the cinema.

"It's really multidimensional and it's really dark and we do not get these two qualities often in the stories on the screen," Stenberg said.

She said that she hoped the film "makes black, black girls feel empowered, feel empowered, feel strong and hold their power and their truth".

"I hope we can have a real dialogue about this from a real place," she said.

"The Hate U Give", which also stars Regina Hall, Issa Rae and Russell Hornsby, will be released in North America on October 19th.