MICHAL BONCZA highly recommends a revelatory exhibition of work by the doyen of indigenous Australians’ art, Emily Kam Kngwarray
Bitter truth sweetened by light-hearted humour
MARIA DUARTE is uplifted by a comedy that tackles racism head on
The Bard commutes to work for the first time in 45 years
GORDON PARSONS is riveted by a translation of Shakespeare’s tragedy into joyous comedy set in a southern black homestead
GEORGE FOGARTY relishes the music of black British artists that channels Carribbean, Latin and club sounds, along with contemporary west African radicalism
CHRIS SEARLE hears the ordeal of the Palestinian people in the improvised musicianship of a UK jazz trio
DAVID RENTON is puzzled by an ambitious attempt to look back on world culture from the future without engaging with or understanding it
Blinded by the Light (12A)
Directed by Gurinder Chadha
SET in Margaret Thatcher’s austere Britain, against the rise of racism and the National Front, a Pakistani teenage boy’s life is transformed by his discovery of Bruce Springsteen’s music in this fun and uplifting comedy drama.
The film, directed and co-written by Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham), is inspired by the memoir of journalist Sarfraz Mansoor and the words and music of the Boss which speak directly to 16-year-old Javed (Viveik Kalra) in 1987 Luton as he battles to find his own voice.
A political animal, he writes poems and songs in protest about Thatcher and Reaganomics for his best friend and aspiring singer Matt (Dean-Charles Chapman, a Jamie Cullum lookalike) but his dream is to leave his home and become a writer.
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MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
MARIA DUARTE recommends the ambitious portrait of an agricultural community confronted by the trauma of enclosure
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