First trailer for Kathryn Bigelow’s new film Detroit

It’s been five years since Kathryn Bigelow wowed us with a movie – 2012’s hunt for Osama bin Laden thriller Zero Dark Thirty – but she’s back again this year with Detroit, a true life crime drama set against the backdrop of the Detroit riots of 1967. The script comes courtesy of Mark Boal, with whom Bigelow collaborated on The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, while Attack the Block and Star Wars: The Force Awakens standout John Boyega looks to head the film’s large ensemble, which also includes Will Poulter, John Krasinski, Anthony Mackie, Jack Reynor and Hannah Murray.

Bigelow’s past two projects were concerned with contemporary socio-political issues. Despite chronicling an event from five decades ago, Detroit’s imagery of police brutality and social uprising looks all too relevant today. The film centres on a police raid on an unlicensed bar in the city’s West Side – when the confrontations turned violent, riots that lasted five days broke out on the streets. By the end of the conflict 39 people were left dead and hundreds more were seriously injured.

The film is being produced by Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures. Founded in 2011, the company have been responsible for producing some of the best American films of the last five years or so, including The Master, Her, American Hustle, Everybody Wants Some!!, 20th Century Women and Bigelow’s own Zero Dark Thirty.

Take a look at the trailer in the player above; Detroit is out in the US on 4 Aug – marking the 50th anniversary of the riots – with a UK release date yet to be announced.