All this week we’ve had the pleasure of bringing you our interviews with the cast of the absolutely wonderful movie that is Moonlight. Nominated for eight Oscars, the movie is very much one to watch.

During the interview conducted by Stefan Pape, we find out just how writer / director Barry Jenkins took this project from that was originally penned by Tarell Alvin McCraney and was told the story is ‘not about you, but it’s about you’ and from the moment he read it, growing up literally a few blocks away from where it was set, he knew he was the perfect man for the job.

Related: André Holland & Trevante Rhodes exclusive interview

Jenkins talks about how getting the movie aesthetically right was much easier when you know the area so well but on the flip-side it was much harder emotionally and how that pressure weighed on him because of that personal connection.

Moonlight

He goes on to talk about how powerful the movie has been to people of all colours and creeds with people literally crying in his arms speechless about what they’ve seen. He speaks about how hard it was to direct Naomie Harris who plays the mother in the movie (and whom we caught up with earlier in the week) after his own mother’s addiction to crack cocaine and how much of a challenge that was.

Finally they discuss the music in the movie and how powerful the music was in the piece. How cinema ‘has the power to unite us’ and the closing scene which we seen in the diner scene and whether the music was chosen before that scene was shot or if it was picked afterwards.

Moonlight is in UK cinemas now. You can see our written 5* review from London Film Festival here. Go and see this film and for all our Moonlight coverage, again click HERE.