The tragic story of Emmett Till is one of a face. The face of a 14-year-old boy, beaten and murdered in Mississippi, a battered and bloated face that his mother insisted be seen by the world. Chinonye Chukwu’s “Till” is a story of two faces: Emmett’s and that of his mother Mamie Till-Mobley, portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler in a powerfully skilled and undeniably star-making screen performance.
In imagining a way to tell Emmett Till’s story without focusing on the violence and torture the boy suffered, Chukwu, along with co-writers Michael Reilly and Till investigator and filmmaker Keith Beauchamp, focus on his mother, Mamie, whose decision to share her son’s face with the world had an indelible impact on the civil rights movement
In “Till,” Chicago city kid Emmett (Jalyn Hall) is a beloved only son and the embodiment of Black boy joy. He has not grown up with the fear of violent racism as his Mississippi cousins have, and he moves in the world with the comfort and ease that his mother has imbued in him with her love and protection. She shields him from quotidian microaggressions, and her warnings about how to behave with Southern white folks are unfortunately too little too late for the ebullient Emmett, called Bo, or BoBo, by his loved ones. Despite his cousin’s warnings, he pays a white woman (Haley Bennett) an innocent compliment, expecting appreciation for his kindness. What he receives is a brutal death sentence: kidnapped, tortured, shot and dumped.
