‘MANGROVE’ OPENS THE BFI LFF!

7th October 2020

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 The BFI London Film Festival Opening film was MANGROVE this year, directed by the multi-award-winning visual artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen, starring Letitia Wright, Shaun Parkes and Malachi Kirby. It’s part of the Festival’s innovative 12-day offering which takes the entire Festival out to cities around the UK, and with many films across programme also available for virtual premieres at home.

The Plot

Marking 50 years since the events depicted in the film, MANGROVE tells the true story of the Mangrove 9, the group of Black activists who clashed with London police during a protest march in 1970 and their highly publicised trial that followed. The trial was the first judicial acknowledgment of behaviour motivated by racial hatred within the Metropolitan Police. MANGROVE is co-written by Steve McQueen and Alastair Siddons. The film is one of five films from Small Axe, a drama anthology which comprises five original films created by Steve McQueen for BBC One.

Steve McQueen said:

“I couldn’t be happier that MANGROVE will open this year’s BFI London Film Festival. Although the themes are universal, MANGROVE is a London story. It may have happened fifty years ago, but it’s as relevant today as it was then.”

The seed of Small Axe was sown 11 years ago, soon after my first film, Hunger. Initially, I had conceived of it as a TV series, but as it developed, I realized these stories had to stand alone as original films yet at the same time be part of a collective. After all, Small Axe refers to a West Indian proverb that means together we are strong. The anthology, anchored in the West Indian experience in London, is a celebration of all that that community has succeeded in achieving against the odds. To me, it is a love letter to Black resilience, triumph, hope, music, joy and love as well as to friendship and family. Oh, and let’s not forget about food too!

I recall each of these stories being told to me either by my parents, my aunt, and by experiencing racial discrimination myself growing up in the 70s and 80s. These are all our stories. I feel personally touched by each and every one of them. My five senses were awoken writing with Courttia Newland and Alastair Siddons. Images, smells, textures and old customs came flooding back.

All five films take place between the late 60s and mid 80s. They are just as much a comment on the present moment as they were then. Although they are about the past, they are very much concerned with the present. A commentary on where we were, where we are and where we want to go.

When the Cannes Film Festival selected Mangrove and Lovers Rock earlier this year, I dedicated both to George Floyd and all the other Black people that have been murdered, seen or unseen, because of who they are in the US, UK and elsewhere. As the proverb goes, “If you are the big tree, we are the small axe.” Black Lives Matter.”

Mangrove is the first of BBC One’s Small Axe anthology series, which showcases five original films by Academy Award and Bafta winning filmmaker Steve McQueen (Hunger, Shame, 12 Years A Slave, Widows). It premieres on BBC One and BBCiPlayer on Sunday 15 November.

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