Small Axe

Steve McQueen's most famous work is perhaps 'Twelve Years a Slave', which I found a rather ordinary maintstream movie distinguished only by itsubject matter. His other films, however, are generally outstanding, and with 'Small Axe', he has crafted a heatfelt, emotional and compelling series of stories about the black experience in Britain. He's good at the set piece scences such as court cases, but above all else, he's brilliant at conveying the psychology of lives lived in an environment of systematic racism. As a white Briton, I might wish that these stories weren't true, or that they could be wholly consigned to the past; but it's important that they're told, and they provide some perspective on the 'Black Lives Matter' movement and why it animated so many in the UK even though we don't have the same level of police killings as there are in the US. But even judged as pure drama, this is excellent stuff.