Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (generic)
Colour: Colour
Sound: Mono
Tech Notes: Mono
Synopsis
Largely told in flashback as Alex enters the prison system as a seemly slightly catatonic young man where he encounters a massive Rasta. We learn he was largely brought up in an abusive care home in Surrey, eventually was housed in a social hostel in Brixton where he finally finds friends and life and works at becoming a DJ, writing and performing.
In prison he is introduced to the world of books, starting with CLR James, and in the end titles we learn that he goes on to become an award winning writer of young persons fiction.
Reviews
by rogerco on Tue 4th May 2021 DVD proj @ home
It Rings True
Full review
Although it is quite short (or possibly because of that as the others all have scenes that go on far too long), this is the most satisfying of the Small Axe set.
Again dealing with a true story, it unfolds Alex's background in a way that enables us to both understand where and why he is what he is in 1981, and see the seeds of what he is to become after the film ends.
The milieu is convincing, the arrival of young Alex ("I'm from Surrey" when asked where in Africa he is from by his new radical mates) in wide-eyed amazement in Brixton is a treat.
The 1981 riots are not treated in any detail, more as background to Alex's story - that would have been a different film hose core theme was already covered in Mangrove.