The BBC has dropped a first look at Steven McQueen’s anthology series, “Small Axe”.
Released on Friday, the trailer marks 50 years since the Mangrove protest in London where Black people demonstrated against Metropolitan police brutality. The protest, which led to the arrest of nine innocent Black women and men, provides the premise for the first episode in the series, “Mangrove,” co-written by McQueen and Alastair Siddons.
“To commemorate the bravery of these community activists and the nine who went on to be acquitted of incitement to riot with the judge citing ‘evidence of racial hatred,’ I am sharing the trailer of ‘Mangrove,’ one of five films to be released under the banner ‘Small Axe,'” McQueen said in a statement.
Cast members include “Black Panther” star Letitia Wright, Shaun Parkes (“Lost in Space”), Malachi Kirby (“Curfew”), Rochenda Sandall (Line of Duty), Jack Lowden (“The Long Song”), Sam Spruell (“Snow White and the Huntsmen”), Gershwyn Eustache Jnr (“The Gentlemen”), Nathaniel Martello-White (“Collateral”), Richie Campbell (“Liar”), Jumayn Hunter (“Les Misérables”), and Gary Beadle (“Summer of Rockets”).
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“Mangrove” and the second instalment in the series, “Lovers Rock” were chosen to be part of the Cannes Film Festival lineup in June. The other instalments include “Alex Wheatle,” “Education,” and “Red, White and Blue,” all of which McQueen dedicated to George Floyd and “all the other Black people that have been murdered, seen or unseen, because of who they are.”
