Letitia Wright plays leader of the Black Panthers in "Mangrove", the first part of the anthology "Small Ax".

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BBC

  • The “Small Ax” anthology is available this Friday on Salto.

  • Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen features five stories from London's Afro-Caribbean community between 1960 and 1980.

  • A powerful and extraordinary anti-racism anthology dedicated to the Black Lives Matter movement and George Floyd.

An extraordinary, historic anthology in the era of Black Lives Matter!

After showing the horror of slavery in the film

12 Years A Slave

, Oscar for Best Picture in 2014, filmmaker Steve McQueen explores his own roots, the Afro-Caribbean community of London between 1960 and 1980 in which he grew up, through five distinct but connected stories, united under the title

Small Ax

.

This anthology of five films, produced by the BBC, available this Friday on Salto is dedicated to George Floyd.

The sum of the episodes of

Small Ax

shows the deleterious gears of racial and social determinism, but also the pitfalls of communitarianism.

Exploration of a major work on racism, rage and vibrant tribute to Caribbean culture and black activism.

Small Ax is a nod to the eponymous song by Bob Marley and The Wailers, released in 1973, which takes up an old African proverb ("So if you are the big tree / We are the small ax / Ready to cut you down (well sharp) "(" So if you are the big tree / We are the little ax / Ready to cut you down (sharp) "].

Black Power, strength in numbers

What do the words “Black Power” mean to you?

This is the question that the first opus,

Mangrove

, halo (like the second

Lovers Rock

, from the Cannes 2020 label) is interested in.

The film begins with the opening, at the end of the 1960s, of the Mangrove, a Caribbean restaurant in the district of Notting Hill, run by Frank Crichlow (Shaun Parkes).

The opportunity for Steve McQueen to tenderly present the West Indian community through its culinary specialties, songs and dances.

Outside the Mangrove, the other Frank, white police officer Frank Pulley (Sam Spruell) comments to another officer, "See, the thing with the black man is he has his. square ".

The opening of this restaurant challenges the institutions of white supremacy.

Faced with continued oppression from the police, the restaurant owner, British leader of the Black Panther Altheia Jones-Lecointe (Letitia Wright, on top after

Black Panther

) and other activists organize a peaceful protest.

This ends with a confrontation with the police who introduce violence into the equation.

Mangrove tells the story of the Mangrove Nine group and their high-profile trial, which led to the judicial recognition of racism by the London police.

Exclusion and reggae culture

Lovers Rock

follows Martha (revelation Amarah Jae St. Aubyn) who sneaks out of her family home to go to a London house party.

We are in 1980, and the majority of revelers are of West Indian origin.

Steve McQueen films a sensory experience here: sweaty bodies, curried goat stew, and four minutes of sheer frenzy on Janet Kay's 1979 reggae-pop hit Silly Games, to the point that revelers keep singing after the end of the song.

They don't want the dream to end.

If the political aspect is less tacit, Steve McQueen reminds us that people of Caribbean origin were not allowed to go to dance clubs, reserved for whites… They therefore had to create theirs.

The camera moves like a real party and captures the snapshot of an era, which lingers like a tune that won't come out of your head.

Racism from the inside

What happens when a black man joins the police?

Rouge, blanc, bleu

features one of the heroes of the last

Star Wars

saga

, John Boyega, in the skin of Leroy Logan, a scientist who decides to join the London Metropolitan Police Force to fight the racial prejudices of the institution, from the inside, in 1983. A decision motivated by the experience of his father Kenneth (Steve Toussaint), who was often harassed by the police.

While other blacks - and especially his father - consider him a traitor, he overhears the racist insults of his colleagues.

How to manage identity injunctions and the racism of the institution, which seems immutable?

Education, the basis of awakening

A biopic that captures the key fragment of a life.

The penultimate episode of the anthology follows the story of Alex Wheatle (Sheyi Cole), born to Jamaican parents in 1963. Abandoned by his mother and father, he was handed over to the British social service bureaucracy where he is regularly abused by white adults.

The film shows his transformation into a cultured activist.

The main action then takes place in Brixton, immortalized by the Clash song in 1979, Guns of Brixton.

The child becomes a rasta, weed trafficker.

Alex is caught in the riots of 1981 and ends up in prison.

The awakening takes place in prison with his cellmate, a Rastafari, encourages him to read books and to care about his education… The real Alex Wheatle is today a successful young adult novelist.

Racial determinism

Education seems to be the most personal aspect of Steve McQueen, diagnosed with dyslexia.

It focuses on Kingsley (Kenyah Sandy), a 12-year-old black boy, who after failing an IQ test lands in a special school, i.e. a sort of wasteland for black children with problems.

This last part shows how a system of racist prejudices limits the chances of children even before they start their life.

It also highlights how important solidarity and support within the community is.

The most tender entry in the series.

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