Mangrove in the Time of Questioning What Justice Truly Means
A colander rolls in place on the ground for an entire minute after a violent raid at the eponymous Mangrove restaurant. The chaotic scene comes to a complete halt as it slowly rolls back and forth until it simmers to a stop.
McQueen lingers on every moment, every thought, every depraved act of injustice committed against the community he has chosen to cast his lens on. It allows us to catch our breath and simultaneously let our thoughts race. We process what we see in each moment and how it fits into the world as it exists both then and now. We think of the Black lives lost to police injustice. The hypocritical nature of justice systems both in Britain and our own backyard.
Even in these moments of pause, nothing feels unnecessary. This is not the typical biography where the highlights are given throughout an event in a play-by-play of actions we could have just as easily read on Wikipedia page. No, McQueen carefully curates a small amount of days in an eleven-week trial and more than a year of build-up and lets those moments carry out with all the vigor and emotional weight they deserve to express.
Mangrove is the opening part to Steve McQueen’s first television series Small Axe but this so-called episode clearly deserves a theatrical release that it likely will never see in a post-COVID world. The amount of love and admiration for those who stood trial as part of the Mangrove 9 is outstanding. Even as he ruminates on these moments, he does not dwell on them. Choosing to show an event in history that was a victory for the movement, however small it may seem in the shadow of still ever-present prejudicial society. But it is in this small glimmer of hope that these characters are given the power they deserve.
Letitia Wright, Malachi Kirby, and Shaun Parkes each shine in these chosen moments that McQueen has shown. Bringing equal parts raw depth of personality and truly awe-inspiring levels of power to every scene they are in.
It is dazzling to watch this entire ensemble and one of the finest directors of our generation as they bring to life an event that you have likely never heard of but, as Darcus Howe says in his final speech before the court, “British history cannot now be written without.”
