
Pressure
15
With a screenplay written by Horace Ové and fellow Trinidadian author Sam Selvon, Pressure follows a Black family in west London. From the parents who came from Trinidad as part of the Windrush generation with their first son, now part of the Black Power Movement, to their younger British-born son Tony (Herbert Norville), who is trying to find his place between the two cultures.
As he leaves school and encounters prejudice on individual and institutional levels, Tony struggles to find acceptance in the country he grew up in yet has no Caribbean home he can dream of returning to. Unemployed and caught between an aspirational mother and a radical older brother, he drifts away from school friends and towards Black Power politics.
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“Horace Ové’s drama has the punchy energy of a 21st-century graphic novel, mixing comedy, tragedy and bitter irony.”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“Showing the many different ingredients that have gone into shaping the landscape of modern black Britain, Pressure remains a pioneering classic to this very day, promising a bright future for black filmmakers in the coming millennium.”
Calum Russell, Far Out
“By illuminating history, he brings the Black past into the Black present. And in doing so, we are encouraged to collectively participate in Ové’s radical vision in the contemporary moment. We need these communal cinematic encounters more than ever.”
Clive Nwonka, Sight and Sound


