'Small Axe: Mangrove' (2020)

(A long review of 'Small Axe: Mangrove', written January 2021)

(Still from 'Mangrove')

Mangrove is the first of Steve McQueen’s (12 Years a Slave, Shame, Widows) TV anthology series Small Axe, a collection of powerful films focusing on stories of racial persecution, resilience, and triumph in London’s West Indian community since the 1960s. Many in this community were part of the “windrush generation”, members of colonised nations that were encouraged to emigrate to Britain after WW2 to fill its labour shortage and rebuild the country. To many of these immigrants, they were promised a better life in “the mother country”. Instead, they were greeted with scorn, resentment. and fear, and were subjected to social deprivation and alienation from white British society. In 1968 Conservative M.P Enoch Powell made his infamously vile “Rivers of Blood” speech which brought these deep rooted feelings of anti-immigration and racial hatred to the forefront of society, stoking tension and division. It is within this context that Mangrove begins, a dramatisation of the story of the ‘Mangrove Nine’ who were a group of black British activists falsely tried for inciting riot. And, I have to say, this film is a tremendous achievement that speaks as much to the present as it does the past.

It is 1968 in Notting Hill, London. As black businessman Frank Crichlow (Shaun Parkes) walks to his newly opened restaurant, the Mangrove, he passes children playing amongst the abandoned rubble of decimated buildings. He passes a concrete wall covered in graffiti that exclaims “EAT THE RICH'',a second one that snarls “W**S OUT”, and another one that reads, in white paint - “POWELL FOR P.M”. For Frank and the predominantly Carribean community of Notting Hill, this is their world, this is their struggle.

As the Mangrove gets on its feet, it soon becomes a meeting place for the whole community where they can enjoy themselves, and engage in free, safe and vibrant discussion. It becomes a pillar of the community, and a shelter from the persecution they face outside. This oppression is most prominent in the metropolitan police’s openly racist hostility towards these people. Seeing how this safe space empowers the community, local officer PC Pulley (Sam Spruell) becomes determined to arrest Frank and the people around him, to “put them back in their place” as he puts it. I must say I felt repulsed, angry, and disgusted whenever he was on the screen, which is a testament to Spruell’s incredible performance. Pulley is a hateful, confused man, whose mind and heart is still imprisoned in colonial fantasies of white supremacy. Of his performance, Spruell has noted that he looked to none other than Enoch Powell, and that historical moment of the Rivers of Blood speech, as a major influence in articulating an accurate and convincing performance.

As Pulley and his offices begin conducting unjust, violent raids on the mangrove, this safe space becomes violated. McQueen shoots these sequences in a truly visceral manner, perfectly depicting the horrific experiences of these victims of racial police brutality. Furniture and objects are destroyed, heads are beaten with batons, and the people inside the Mangrove that are just harmlessly existing, are dragged into the streets. With the intensity and immediacy of how ths is shot, you really feel the trauma, violence and violation of such an experience. Despite the raids, Frank and the community fight back. Athelia Jones-LeCointe (Letitia Wright), leader of the British Black Panthers Movement, Darcus Howe (Malachi Kirby), and his wife Barbara Besse (Rochenda Sandall), help Frank organise a protest against the police.

All play a wonderful part in Mangrove, but I feel like I must single out Letitia Wright. She was astoundingly brilliant as Athelia. Many of you will recognise her from Black Panther, Black Mirror, or Top Boy, which she plays terrific parts in. But this performance is really special, putting on full display her tremendous range and talent. Particularly memorable is a scene where she delivers an awe-inspiring speech to the nine as Frank considers pleading guilty. This scene made tears fill my eyes and the hair stand on the back of my neck. However, the film is also equally as powerful in its quieter, more subtle moments.

In perhaps the most touching moment in the film, Mrs Tetley (Doreen Ingleton), an old local lady, gives her entire savings to Frank so that the Mangrove can stay open. She recognises the importance of the Mangrove to everyone, and that Frank is struggling, so she selflessly helps. This scene is not overplayed nor overdramatic, as can be the case when capturing heroism, but is orchestrated at the right emotional pitch by McQueen, Parkes, and Ingleton so as to hit you right in the guts. It has the quality of being both sad and beautifully inspiring. The film’s emotional power, in many ways, is defined by this balance between sadness and beauty that comes to the fore in key moments such as this or Athelia’s defiant speech, telling us that, in spite of the immense cruelty and suffering in the world, hope still exists.

In the aftermath of a tumultuous year that has seen the devastating effects of systematic racism and police brutality, and the transnational Black Lives Matter Movement in response to it, Mangrove is especially timely. Moreover, in the UK there has been a widespread dialogue about the spectres of colonialism that haunt our institutions, our history, our identity. In a post-Brexit landscape, it is even more important now that we educate ourselves about real British history, because how can we talk of a national identity before we truly come to understand who we are? I had never heard of the Mangrove Nine before watching this film, as I am sure most people would not have, which I think speaks volumes.