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**Warning: This article discusses Emmett Till, whose story some readers may find distressing**<\/em><\/p>\n The story of Emmett Till \u2013 the 14-year-old boy who was brutally lynched in Mississippi in 1955 \u2013 is a shocking and tragic one, but it is told with real sensitivity in Till, the new film from acclaimed director Chinonye Chukwu which arrives in UK cinemas this week.<\/p>\n As many viewers will already know, Emmett was a Chicago-born teenager who had been staying with his cousins in the Mississippi Delta region when he was accused of flirting with a married white clerk at a local grocery store \u2013 a violation of the racist Jim Crow laws that were still in place in several southern states at the time.<\/p>\n A few nights later, he was abducted from his great-uncle\u2019s house by the clerk\u2019s husband and his half-brother \u2013 Roy Bryant and JW Milam \u2013 who proceeded to beat and mutilate him before shooting him in the head and leaving his body in the Tallahatchie River, where his remains were found three days later.<\/p>\n Although Till opens by showing Emmett\u2019s life prior to this horrific incident, it primarily tells the story of the events that happened after his murder \u2013 focusing on his mother Mamie\u2019s long fight for justice and her journey to becoming a prominent activist in the Civil Rights Movement.<\/p> As Chukwu makes clear in her director\u2019s statement, this decision to tell the story from Mamie\u2019s viewpoint \u2013 championing her legacy and centering her in the spotlight \u2013 was vital when it came to making the film, and speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com<\/a> she outlined the extensive research process she undertook when it came to adapting her true story.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was so much about Mamie I didn\u2019t know, and I think that there\u2019s so much about Mamie that most of us in the world don\u2019t know,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think a lot of people only know about the physical violence that was inflicted on Emmett \u2013 but that\u2019s not the story. And that certainly shouldn\u2019t be all that people take away from Mamie\u2019s story and Emmett\u2019s humanity and Mamie\u2019s humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n