Director Barry Jenkins describes making Moonlight as "the most intense experience of my life". The film is based on a story by US playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, but quickly became personal for Jenkins. "It was the kind of painful experience you don't see coming," he says. "It was like being on a plane and realising at some point you are already in the centre of the hurricane."
In Moonlight, which won best drama at the Golden Globes, three actors, Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders and Trevante Rhodes, play one character, Chiron, in three phases of his life in a tough Miami ghetto, from age 10 to adulthood. As a boy he lives with with his crack-addicted mother (Naomie Harris), and as he grows up, his unlikely mentors are local drug dealer Juan (Mahershala Ali) and girlfriend Teresa (singer Janelle Monae).
While Jenkins and McCraney did not know each other before collaborating on the film, they attended the same schools in the impoverished Liberty City neighbourhood of Miami a few years apart. Both went on to beat the odds and become successful artists, and both grew up with mothers grappling with severe drug addiction. Jenkins' mother survived and has remained sober and HIV-positive for 24 years, while McCraney's mother died of AIDS.
"I had toyed with the idea of making a movie about my mum but didn't want to go that personal," Jenkins says. "So I thought I could make this playwright's story about his mum instead and then on set, it hit me hard. It was almost like live theatre as therapy, but we weren't on a stage, we were actually in the neighbourhood where these things took place."
He now looks back on the healing that came out of that experience. "Being in the eye of the hurricane felt quite calm at first but when Naomie Harris showed up to film her scenes, it got very turbulent but in a good way. The story was dark but true and watching someone show up to live that truth felt weirdly comforting in some way."
Another of the film's powerful performances comes from Ali, 42, nominated for best supporting actor Golden Globe, and known as former press secretary and lobbyist Remy Danton in House of Cards. He nurtures Chiron through tough times, while selling drugs to his mother.
Ali also grew up in a poor neighbourhood, but in Oakland, California, and was familiar with characters like Juan.
"Being in close proximity to that world growing up, it's very difficult for me to look at those characters with the same judgment that people may have that don't come from those circumstances," he says. "I think there's this general perception that people who deal drugs want jewellery and cars and stuff, but if you are around them, they are usually the opposite and very quiet about it because it's all about putting food on the table for them and they don't want to bring attention to themselves."
Ali escaped that life with a basketball scholarship to college and eventually got a master's degree in acting from New York University. "I have people in my family that are pretty well-to-do and there are other people in my family who are incarcerated, as well as friends who became engineers and cops and friends who became drug dealers," he says. "I realise I'm one of the fortunate ones."
Jenkins has a similar story. He grew up in Liberty City with his single mother and three older siblings then went to Florida State University, where he changed majors from English to creative writing and eventually to film. He found his voice as a student filmmaker after discovering foreign films at his local video store.
"One of the first films that I ever saw when I started college was this South Korean horror film called 301, 302 (the 1995 film directed by Park Chul-Soo) about two women who live in apartments next door. One is married to an abusive husband, the other is a struggling chef who lives alone," he says. "Over the course of the film they conspire to kill the abusive husband, cook him and then eat this gourmet meal and here I was, a kid like the one you see in Moonlight, who had never remotely seen anything like this and I was hooked.
"I decided I didn't want my voice to be like everyone else's, so I watched only foreign films – Asian new wave and French new wave were my biggest influences. Going back to a world that is super-familiar to me in Moonlight is interesting because I took the voice I developed elsewhere and framed it in a way that anyone anywhere in the world could watch and see themselves in it."
Harris, best known as Miss Moneypenny in the Bond films Spectre and Skyfall, found it tough immersing herself in the world of an addict. "Especially because I am Miss Clean Living," the 40-year-old English actor jokes. "I don't drink alcohol, I don't smoke, I don't even drink coffee, so to go from being a health nut to a crack addict was a massive jump."
Harris was also initially hesitant to take on the African-American female drug addict role. "The truth of my own personal experience of what women were like when I was growing up was very different to this and I felt there were already enough negative portrayals of women in film, so I wanted to redress the balance and portray positive images of women," she says. "But I do think while this character is not a positive image necessarily, it's a progressive image because she does find redemption in some way with her son."
Ali didn't have the same concerns as Harris about playing Juan. "I wasn't thinking about the stereotype because this character is so complex," he says. "My only fear was that I was working on a few other projects at the same time and I wanted to make sure I could give this character everything he needed."
The softly spoken actor is enjoying his good fortune, including the upcoming season of House of Cards and a supporting role in another well-received movie, Hidden Figures. He is also expecting his first child in a few months with wife, Amatus Sami-Karim. "Something has definitely shifted and I am really appreciative of that," he says. "What's happening to me would be considered the pinnacle of anyone's career but it's now overshadowed by having a child on the way, so it's very humbling at the same time."
As Moonlight gets closer to possible Oscar glory after its Golden Globe success, with eight nominations, including for best picture and best director and best supporting actors for Ali and Harris, for Jenkins there is only one person left whose opinion really counts: his mother.
"She hasn't seen the movie yet, although the studio kindly set up a few screenings and then she backed out at the last minute," he says. His mother was the first to ring with congratulations after his Golden Globe win, asking for a photo of him backstage with his award. "She knew I was making this film and was supportive every step of the way except actually watching it. I'm sure she will watch it at some point but it's not for me to rush her. I'm just happy she gave me her blessing to make the film."
Moonlight
Genre: Drama
Buzz: One of the most critically acclaimed films of the year and an Oscar front runner
Stars: Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders and Trevante Rhodes
Director: Barry Jenkins
Rated: M
Release: Out now