A new trailer is out for Krystin Ver Linden's directorial debut film Alice, which puts the spotlight on rising star Keke Palmer. Having debuted at Sundance 2022, the film follows an enslaved woman escaping her abusive owner on a nineteeth-century plantation...only to discover the year is actually 1973, and she's been lied to about her freedom for years. The film is inspired by true accounts of slaves in the deep South, and juxtaposes the racial awaking of the 1970s with the controlling antebellum South.
The trailer sees Palmer's Alice cross between these two different realities. One night, she makes her escape after a fight with her owner Paul (Jonny Lee Miller), and upon escaping the woods surrounding the plantation, she finds herself on a highway. It's then that she meets Frank (Common) who shows her the world she never knew: a world where a Black woman like her can gain empowerment and knowledge in society that she never could've imagined under the ruthless rule of Paul. With her newfound freedom and sense of self, she sets out to right a wrong many years in the making.
Alice gets to face her old tormentor head-on at the end of the trailer, meeting him back in his own, closed-off little world where freedom doesn't yet exist for everybody. We see her giving Paul the same treatment she and the other slaves he owned dealt with for years, yet when faced down with this new reality of freedom for all, he still cites tired heritage as a reason to continue his ownership. It's then Alice delivers the powerful closing line after a gunshot rings out: "I am freedom."
Alice is headlined by Palmer, Miller, and Common with Gaius Charles, Natasha Yvette Williams, and Alicia Witt also featured heavily in the film. Collider previously spoke with Palmer, Ver Linden, and producer Peter Lawson about the film while also getting into Palmer's journey to becoming an actor and Ver Linden's time working under Quentin Tarantino. In the interview, Palmer expressed her excitement when she initially read the script due to its handling of the heavy subject of slavery in a way that's much less stomach-churning and depressing and more complex and empowering.
Alice comes to theaters on March 18. Check out the trailer below:
And check out the film's poster:
