Beyond the Divide's Imoje Aikhoje on bringing an ex-Neo-Nazi and Black British activist together for new film

As part of this year's cohort of Netflix Documentary Talent Fund films that premiered at Raindance Film Festival 2025, Aikhoje isn't new to filmmaking – although he modestly states that there are "definitely more experienced filmmakers in this year's cohort than me".

But being the first funded project under his belt (and by Netflix no less), Aikhoje not only relished the chance to work within the parameters of the brief set by the streamer, but also to platform a story that will undoubtedly get people talking.

The prompt for this year's Netflix Documentary Talent Fund applicants was "‘you’re never gonna believe this", which made Aikhoje think of the idea of a former Neo-Nazi and a Black activist because "it’s just such an opposing idea", he tells me.

"I'd actually been workshopping something similar before I knew about the fund. In terms of the base ingredients of this topic, it's definitely been in my mind. I mean, I think it's hard to be a filmmaker and be Black in the UK and not also consider, how do people feel about me being there?"

Growing up in the UK, Aikhoje says "racism isn't new to me here", but in light of last year's riots and even some of the discourse around Brexit, the director "saw just how prevalent and common certain ideologies are here". What that sparked in the director, though, was wanting to tackle the topic of race and rising far-right sentiment in a different way.

"In terms of the concept, I just thought instead of anger – I'd kind of gone past the anger – I was more just in the sense of wanting to understand the viewpoint. Because there's too many people that have a similar viewpoint, not obviously to the extreme but more centre or right-leaning viewpoints, clearly –the poll numbers are showing that. So, I just thought I would love to facilitate a conversation around that, just finding out why."

Rather than seeking to paint one person as good or bad, Aikhoje simply wanted to understand the humanity behind both perspectives and "offer a different take" that wasn't just about "two sides fighting".

Five years on from the murder of George Floyd and the protests that took place across the globe, it feels like now more than ever there should be renewed focus in the ways we're speaking about race relations. It's a period of time that nobody should be forgetting in a rush and is one we're catapulted into from the start of Beyond the Divide.

Introduced immediately to activist Christopher Otokito, we find out that he was part of the group of men – along with Patrick Hutchinson – who was involved in rescuing an injured counter-protester during one of the most talked-about Black Lives Matter protests on 13th June 2020.

The image quickly became one of the defining ones of the year, propelling Hutchinson, Otokito and their friends into the limelight, with many admiring their bravery and commitment to try to stop any violence from escalating.

Through archive and mobile footage of Otokito's, who is a long-term friend of Aikhoje's, we're propelled back into a year that – let's face it – was especially tiring and difficult for Black people worldwide. As we hear from Otokito, though, after 13th June, he was left with a feeling of wanting to understand where such hostility starts and how we can combat it.

It's such an interesting dynamic to centre a documentary on, I tell Aikhoje, and while a knee-jerk reaction to such a film may be to not want to hear from a former Neo-Nazi at all, Aikhoje says that Beyond the Divide addresses that very point and underlines the fact that "there needs to be a conversation".

"It's less about what the conversation is versus we need to have it. I think a lot of what happens is we stay on one side of the fence and we just think that the enemy's there or there, we just get trenched in those positions. To be honest, it's hard to not feel that way when you get treated a certain way," he explains.

"For me, the purpose of this film isn't to say that you need to forgive anything that's happened to you for the purpose of empathy and understanding. That's not what I'm saying. I think that, in an overarching way, we need to have more conversations.

"That doesn't then diminish the fact that you may be going through racism right now, you may be going through physical, emotional or mental trauma right now relating to this. But I do think that what we've been doing so far, in terms of even on one side or the other, might not necessarily be conducive to a solution."

In his preliminary chats with former Neo-Nazi Nigel Bromage, Aikhoje admits that he was "super surprised" at parts of his story but mainly by the fact that his memories of childhood were so reflective of anyone that Aikhoje knows himself.

Having grown up with a diverse group of friends and listening to all kinds of music doesn't mean you're an automatic good person, Aikhoje says, "but going from that to a Neo-Nazi is just such an extreme change."

He continues: "I think the most surprising thing to me was just how much love and support Bromage got from a far-right community and Neo-Nazis. When I think of these groups, I think hate, anger. I think people that would attack me, attack my family, attack people that I care about.

"It was just so surprising then – of course it makes sense in hindsight, obviously it does – to hear how much compassion, support and love he was shown."

At just 12 minutes long, Beyond the Divide squeezes a lot in (including dramatised elements that shed a light on Bromage's teenage years) and while many would see it as a near-impossible challenge to do so, Aikhoje relished the opportunity to fit in a full narrative.

"If I just have two people arguing about something, what is the audience going to get out of that? They’ll just come in with a certain viewpoint and leave with the exact same viewpoint."

From being drawn into the far-right at just 15 years of age, Bromage is now a chief executive of charity Exit Hate UK and Small Steps (a specialist counter far-right education company).

It's a transformation story that is very much at the centre of Beyond the Divide, with Aikhoje keen to get Bromage's perspective on his former far-right extremist past – "a perspective a lot of people have right now", Aikhoje says – in the hopes of highlighting Bromage's rounded view of why such thinking doesn't make sense.

Initially, Aikhoje's idea for Beyond the Divide was one that didn't include that full-circle narrative and the director originally wanted to include someone who was still in the midst of far-right thinking.

Although this short film is one that Aikhoje stands completely behind, he does recognise the fact that it's not simply a "one and done topic". A future long-form project beckons in the horizon, he tells me, "because I think there is space for a story like this with more conflict as well".

He says: "Now, I'm doing the research into making a longer form version of this, but with people that are still in the brink of this. Maybe it could even span the course of a year versus a couple of months.

"My purpose is to educate and my purpose is to entertain if I can or, at least within the visual medium, just make something that is visually interesting alongside educating and learning myself."

And while shorts have been a "perfect training ground" because of the way they force a director to hone in on a story in a certain amount of time, he shares his excitement at "graduating to features".

Key to this documentary is gaining an understanding of the conditions that can form a hotbed for such extremist thinking, but so too was making sure that both Otokito and Bromage were authentically represented.

The filmmaker admits he was inspired by the two contributors' capacity for empathy and forgiveness, something that is palpable, especially from Otokito's understanding of Bromage's story.

Like any filmmaker, Aikhoje can't control what audiences take away from Beyond the Divide but he does say that he hopes the film can be useful to at least one person. With previous short films chronicling themes like domestic abuse, anxiety and homelessness, Aikhoje says that he's written from a place of documenting what he knows.

"I think there's something really special about stories like that. I love ensemble stories, but I think right now I'm drawn to it and I've written mostly stories about a singular character on a hero's journey, trying to either conquer themselves or conquer their environment. I'm driven by stories about people overcoming adversity."

It's clear that many may go into watching Beyond the Divide with preconceptions about how a conversation between Otokito and Bromage will unfold. For Aikhoje, it's all about people not jumping to conclusions too quickly, especially when the need for dialogue about these topics feels as though it's reaching a fever pitch.

When I ask what was most important to him to get across about both of their stories, he says: "I think with Chris, it was more about showcasing a perspective that could be resonant. And with Nigel, you obviously always want people to be able to resonate at certain points, but he has a wealth of trauma, emotion, and information that I wasn't privy to before meeting him.

"I don't want people to make assumptions, but the topics and the factors that Nigel mentions in terms of him being drawn to the far-right are prevalent right now, which is why we made the film right now. So I think being educated from that and educated on the tools that they both brought up were the main things for me."

Beyond the Divide is now available to stream on Netflix’s Still Watching YouTube Channel.

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