TIFF 2024: Denzel Washington and sons bring haunting family drama to screen

TORONTO — Award-winning actor Denzel Washington joined his two sons on the red carpet this week at the Toronto screening of The Piano Lesson, a collaboration that tells a story of an African-American family and its legacy.

Denzel Washington was executive producer of the Netflix movie, and his son Malcolm directed the feature, his first. His other son, John David, plays one of the lead roles.

Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by August Wilson, The Piano Lesson is a story about a disagreement between a brother and sister about what to do with an heirloom piano carved by a great-grandfather that is haunted by a ghost from the family’s enslaved past.

“We wanted to make a movie that gave audiences who did not know there was a story like this access to it and open a window to this story,” said Malcolm Washington, who also directed a Broadway staging of the play that starred his brother.

The brother, played by John David Washington, wants to sell the piano to buy the land where his ancestors worked as slaves. For the sister, played by Danielle Deadwyler, it is an irreplaceable connection with the past. Samuel L. Jackson plays their uncle who tries to mediate.

The film, set in Pittsburgh in 1936, is the third adaptation by Denzel Washington from the 10-part “Pittsburgh Series” of plays by Wilson, following Fences and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

“The Wilson estate came to me 10 years ago and allowed me to take charge, or to shepherd, the making of these August Wilson plays,” he said.

He told reporters at the Toronto International Film Festival that his team intends to make all of them into films, and discussions about the work on the next movie had already begun, although he declined to reveal the title.

Deadwyler, whose acting credits include 2021’s The Harder They Fall told Reuters that it was a gift to be able to work with Malcolm Washington.

“From our first conversation, I realized we are similar in ideas, themes and modalities of arts are integral to how we are reared,” she said. “We came in over-prepared and we did the play.” — Reuters