Deadline recently unveiled the first trailer for The Courtroom, a new drama from Succession star, Arian Moayed, that documents one woman’s journey through the deportation process. The trailer highlights the gut-wrenching, emotional proceedings that can take place between the black and white of the law. A feature adaptation of Moayed’s critically-acclaimed play, the film will premiere at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival as an official selection on June 16.
The Courtroom centers on a Filipina immigrant, Elizabeth Keathley (Kristin Villanueva), who faces deportation after accidentally registering to vote with her K3 Visa. With a newborn baby and a husband at home, the result of the proceedings will change her life forever, even though her mistake was a small one. What followed an innocent mistake was a brutal six-year-long, mazelike process with her life constantly hanging in the balance. In order to capture the cold, unfeeling nature of the U.S. immigration process, all the film’s dialogue was taken verbatim from trial transcripts.
Everything about The Courtroom‘s first trailer feels suffocating, from the low, tense tone playing in the background to the dreary courtroom setting and the lawyer’s constant badgering to get an admission of guilt and enforce the nation’s law. Villanueva says very little, but she easily conveys the confusion and distress that such a situation can elicit. It’s clear from the get-go that it was all just a small mistake made by someone who doesn’t fully understand the laws and procedures of the U.S. yet, but in the eyes of the law, she might as well be a hardened criminal. Her attorney points out how ridiculous it all is that a misunderstanding immediately warranted the harshest punishment possible for an immigrant. In real life, when Keathley eventually won her case, it brought awareness to this ridiculousness and prompted widespread voting law changes.
Obie Award winner, Lee Sunday Evans makes his feature directorial debut with The Courtroom which also stars Marsha Stephanie Blake, Michael Braun, Michael Chernus, Kathleen Chalfant, Hanna Cheek, Michael B. French, Mick Hilgers, Linda Powell, and BD Wong. Damon Owlia and Jonathan Olson for Topic, in their second collaboration with Moayed, also executive produce with Evans, Anne Carey, Ryan Chanatry, and Gena Konstantinakos.
Moayed’s stock shot into the stratosphere after appearing as Stewy Hosseini in Succession. He’s since landed a starring role in Inventing Anna, a spot in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and a recurring role in Love Life Season 2 opposite William Jackson Harper. The subject of The Courtroom hits particularly close to home for the writer and actor who was also subjected to the unfeeling immigration system:
As an immigrant who experienced firsthand the struggles of surviving in a new country, the truth about what that journey is like is usually stranger and more compelling than fiction. Making this film that tells the story of immigrant Elizabeth Keathley and her lawyer Richard Hanus, is a way that I wanted to bring people closer to the challenges of navigating the bureaucracy of the United States immigration system. Through Lee Sunday Evans’ bold idea about how to create the visual language for the movie, the audience is given a very rare opportunity to understand the experience of an immigrant moving through the labyrinthine immigration system. As artists, our goal is to reveal something much larger about the dynamics around immigration by focusing on this one, very personal, intimate story. The transcripts of The Courtroom have put us all on trial.
The Courtroom arrives at Tribeca on June 16. Check out the trailer below to see the harrowing courtroom proceedings for the immigration case:
