ALEX WHEATLE

★★★★

OUT NOW (BBC IPLAYER) / CERT N/A / 64 MINS

DIRECTOR Steve Mcqueen

CAST Sheyi Cole, Robbie Gee, Jonathan Jules

United by their themes of British institutional racism, each Small Axe feature has focused on deliberately paved-over aspects of this country’s history, its hatred viewed as mere anomalies. Alex Wheatle is about the need to unlearn this perspective, making sense of the present by remembering the past. Though grand in scope, the film maintains the series’ intimate focus by centring it around Wheatle (and 1981’s Brixton Uprising) and his ongoing pain from having been stranded in white-dominated environments such as the social services system. While it’s more sprawling than the others, it’s also the strongest character piece, its coming-of-age and process of unlearning the dogma of England’s white upper classes told with riveting emotivity and clarity.