In the new film Alice, Keke Palmer plays an enslaved woman in 1800s Georgia who, after escaping her plantation, learns that it’s actually 1973. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the film is Krystin Ver Linden’s directorial debut and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition Section. You can view the trailer below.
The trailer opens with a glimpse of how Alice lives before escaping. She later meets political activist Frank, who is played by Common. Frank helps her as she reclaims her life with her newfound freedom. Freedom is not the only thing that Alice wants however, she still hopes to seek revenge. Despite a stern warning from Frank that going down that path would lead to her death, she still looks to satisfy her need for revenge.
The film is a journey through the eyes of a woman whose life has been taken from her up until now. The driving force behind her revenge clouds the bigger picture and might be the death of her as Frank warned. Yet Alice goes on to say this to the man that enslaved her after calling the man, “It’s the woman you used to ‘own.’ You watched us get tormented. It’s my turn now.”
“I’m not that scared and that should scare you,” she later tells him when face-to-face.
Is Alice Based on a True Story?
Alice is inspired by true events of Black Americans who remained enslaved after the Emancipation Proclamation. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Palmer, who also executive produced, described the film as “an ode to the Blaxpoitation era” and said joining the film was “a way to express my activism, my pride in my community and the ways in which I want to encourage my community, especially when referencing the past.”
Palmer made her acting debut in Barbershop 2: Back in Business. She later appeared in the television film The Wool Cap and had her breakthrough starring in the drama film Akeelah and the Bee. She released her debut studio album, So Uncool, in 2007. She also received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Host for her talk show Strahan, Sara and Keke and in 2020, she hosted the MTV Video Music Awards becoming the first woman of color to host the event.
Alice is set to be released in theaters March 18th 2022. You can read the official synopsis for the film below.
Alice (Keke Palmer) yearns for freedom as an enslaved person on a rural Georgia plantation under its brutal and disturbed owner Paul (Jonny Lee Miller). After a violent clash with Paul, she flees through the neighboring woods and stumbles onto the unfamiliar sight of a highway, soon discovering the year is actually 1973. Rescued on the roadside by a disillusioned political activist named Frank (Common), Alice quickly comprehends the lies that have kept her in bondage and the promise of Black liberation. Inspired by true events, Alice is a modern empowerment story tracing Alice’s journey through the post-Civil Rights Era American South.