CINÉMA Ça parle de quoi « Babylon » ? Découvrez son résumé et sa bande-annonce

Campé par le chanteur du groupe Aswad Brinsley Forde, le jeune rasta Blue est perdu dans une société anglaise qui ne le comprend pas, pas plus qu'elle n'a réussi à assimiler sa vague d'immigration jamaïcaine depuis la décolonisation de l'île, en 1962.

Im Zuge des aktuellen länderübergreifenden Black-Lives-Matter-Proteste lohnt es sich, „Babylon“ (1980) wiederzusehen: Viel mehr als nur ein Reggae-Musikfilm thematisiert er Rassismus, Polizeigewalt und afrokaribisches Leben in Thatchers England und erinnert darüber hinaus an ein oft vergessenes Kapitel europäischer Clubkultur.

Of the many realizations the U.S. has had in 2020, the past few weeks have highlighted how marginalized some voices can be, and have been for many years. Incidents of police violence against black people have become so prevalent, that the same incidents are often used as punchlines in TV and movies as a way of defanging the gross reality.

A celebration of the pioneering films reflecting black life in Britain over the last 40 years.

In part two of a two-part survey, our writer explores an essential history of feature films, gathering works by contemporary voices like Spike Lee, Ava DuVernay, and Jordan Peele, as well as staggering, underseen gems you can stream if you know where to look.

Screening as part of Images Festival, Ayo Akingbade’s trilogy No News Today offers an incisive glimpse at the British Nigerian filmmaker’s hometown.

Picture this: being at the centre of the busy Emancipation Park surrounded by Poinciana trees with the night sky being the only thing looking down at you, decorated with the sound of children’s laughter in the distance, and the voices and music from a historic reggae film playing simultaneously.

Set in Brixton (which is to London what Harlem is to New York City—and both have been gentrified in recent years), starring Rasta singer Brinsley Forde (the frontman of the legendary reggae band Aswad), and cowritten by Martin Stellman (who also wrote 1979 UK cult favorite Quadrophenia), Babylon is a feature-length film about black life, black music, and black struggles in 1980 Britain.

The economy is in the toilet, Margaret Thatcher has begun her assault on labor and welfare institutions, and city after city is becoming what The Specials famously described as "a ghost town." If you want some background to the sad Brexit issue that cost the Labour Party a stunning 59 seats in the general election of 2019, you need to see Babylon.

Reader, are you there? I hope so, because it's time once again for that annual ritual of almost instant regret and months-long second thoughts, the public declaration of my choices for the best films of the year.