To kick off this year’s Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (MVAAFF), Netflix screened the pilot episode of their upcoming limited series From Scratch, starring Zoe Saldana (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3). The premiere date of the series on the service, late in the month of October, was also announced alongside the episode. The plot revolves around an international couple who fall in love in Italy and rapidly become each other’s, extended family. Netflix also used the event to unveil fresh information about the series and a poster for From Scratch.
The artwork depicts Saldana’s character Amahle and her on-screen boyfriend Lino (Eugenio Mastrandrea) gazing lovingly at each other in the rearview mirror of a Vezpa against a Sicilian backdrop, suggesting a humorous tale. Tembi Locke’s autobiography serves as the inspiration for the film From Scratch. The author collaborated with her sister Attica Locke to expand the novel into a series. In 2019, the siblings were interviewed by each other on the Shondaland website to discuss where they got the idea for the narrative.
Specifically, Tembi disclosed Three summers into being a widow, I was in Sicily when the realisation came to me. At the conclusion of what felt like a lovely summer day, I was sitting at the table with my small daughter and my mother-in-law. And I wondered, given our origins and the fact that our sole common link no longer exists, how we managed to arrive at this point. That inquiry suggested a novel’s worth of material.
A further two years passed before I was finally able to sit down and compose it. I had to get up the courage to share the story. […] The sheer act of declaring, “I have something to say, this narrative is important,” is an act of great bravery. Perhaps especially for women, and particularly for black women. […] Therefore, writing is inherently courageous, and the memoir genre is maybe even more so. The series opener and finale were written by the brothers’ screenwriting team, while the next six episodes were written by Amy Wang, JJ Braider, Marguerite MacIntire, Joshua Allen, and Jason Coffey.
Nzingha Stewart (Inventing Anna) and Dennie Gordon (The Walking Dead) are the show’s directors (Jack Ryan). Starring alongside Saldaa and Mastrandrea in From Scratch are Keith David (Greenleaf), Kellita Smith (Z Nation), Judith Scott (Dear White People), Lucia Sardo (Alone With Her Dreams), Paride Benassai (Baara), and Roberta Rigano (Station Eleven) (I Know This Much is True). Beginning October 21st, all eight episodes of Netflix’s original series From Scratch will be available for the first time.
Synopsis
Based on the book, From Scratch is a romantic comedy about an American student named Amahle “Amy” Wheeler (played by Zoe Saldana) who travels to Italy to study and ends up falling in love with Lino, a Sicilian cook. Many obstacles, such as their vastly diverse cultural upbringings, threaten to derail their passionate relationship. When Lino’s health worsens and the couple’s future is jeopardised, however, the two sets of parents and children join together to form an extended family unlike any of them had ever dreamed possible, showing that love knows no boundaries.