Our take
This impressive body of work defies any classification: it’s a collection of five films that have been put together into a miniseries. Director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) collected a timeless set of stories set from the ‘60s to ‘80s about London’s West Indian community and their struggle with rampant racism.
The first film, Mangrove, bears the name of the restaurant at the center of the story. As a sanctuary for the community, the restaurant quickly becomes the target of a racist police division that employs various tactics to disrupt its popularity. The local chapter of the Black Panthers and its charismatic leader (played by Letitia Wright) get involved.
Mangrove and Lovers Rock, the next episode, were in the selection of the Cannes Film Festival that got canceled because of the pandemic.
What it won
Cannes
1 nom
Golden Globes
1 nom
BAFTA
1 nom
The story
An anthology series of five stories looking at the lives of a group of friends and their families in London’s West Indian community from the late 1960s to the early 80s.
Elsewhere
"McQueen wants to vanquish any idea that British racism is somehow more repressed and less violent than the American kind; he spotlights the myth of the country's politesse in order to do some smashing of his own."
— Doreen St. Felix
"Mangrove is a necessary and exhilarating illustration of the staying power of Black Britons."
— Rogan Graham
The details
Streaming arrival
Who picked it
The Staff is the editorial team at A Good Movie to Watch, contributing reviews, recommendations, and streaming guides across film and television. Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, we track over 100 streaming services in the US. Founded in 2014 by Bilal Zouheir, the team is built around human curation rather than algorithmic recommendations.
