British filmmaker Steve McQueen took a long gap between 2013’s Oscar-winning “12 Years A Slave” and 2018’s “Widows” (possibly because of an HBO series he was meant to put on, but it eventually fell through). Fortunately, he’s already following up the underappreciated “Widows” with a new project and it’s an ambitious one. Titled “Small Axe,” McQueen’s latest is a BBC-Amazon anthology project which consists of five films all set around black activism, racism and protest and London’s West Indian community in the U.K. Set to debut at the New York Film Festival among other possible festivals, “Mangrove” is one of the five hour-or-so-length films from the Oscar winner’s “Small Axe.” The first trailer for “Mangrove” has arrived and it features “Black Panther” star Letitia Wright.
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Here’s the long-form synopsis:
Mangrove is the true story of the Mangrove 9, a group of Black activists who clashed with London police during a protest march in 1970, and the highly publicized trial that followed. The trial was the first judicial acknowledgment of behavior motivated by racial hatred within the Metropolitan Police.
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Mangrove is one of five films from Small Axe, a drama anthology which comprises five original films by Academy Award, Bafta, and Golden Globe-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen (Hunger, 12 Years A Slave). Set from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, the films each tell a different story involving London’s West Indian community, whose lives have been shaped by their own force of will despite rampant racism and discrimination. The title is derived from an African proverb, which has resonance throughout the Caribbean, “if you are the big tree, we are the small axe”. This was made popular by Bob Marley in The Wailers song Small Axe from the album Burnin’ (1973).
“Mangrove” stars Letitia Wright, Shaun Parkes, Malachi Kirby, Rochenda Sandall, Jack Lowden, Sam Spruell, Gershwyn Eustache Jnr, Nathaniel Martello-White, Richie Campbell, Jumayn Hunter, and Gary Beadle. “Mangrove” and the other “Small Axe” films will release on BBC One and iPlayer in the U.K., and on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S., later this year. The film “Lovers Rock” from “Small Axe” was recently selected as the centerpiece film of the New York Film Festival and will likely make its world premiere there in October.