Akilla Brown is 40 years-old, and for the first time in his life, the clandestine cannabis grow operation he runs is legit. Only one year into government-approved legalization, the pendulum of hypocrisy takes a toll and he decides to cash out. While making a routine delivery on a cool, summer night, destiny takes an unexpected turn when Akilla confronts a firestorm of masked youths in an armed robbery.

In the aftermath of the heist, Akilla captures one of the thieves, a mute fifteen-year-old boy named Sheppard. Upon learning the bandits are affiliated with the Garrison Army, a Jamaican crime syndicate his grandfather founded, Akilla is forced to reckon with a cycle of violence he thought he escaped.

Directed by Charles Officer (CIFF ’18 screening INVISIBLE ESSENCE: THE LITTLE PRINCE, NURSE.FIGHTER.BOY), AKILLA’S ESCAPE weaves the present and past in a crime-noir about the urban child-soldier. Set in Toronto and New York where over 450,000 Jamaicans reside, the story speaks to the historical criminalization of black boys that modern society overlooks.