Pressure
classified 15Please note: This was screened in Nov 2023
Hailed as Britain's first Black feature film, Horace Ové’s masterpiece is a hard-hitting, honest document of the plight of disenchanted Black youths in 1970s London.
Tony (Herbert Norville) is a bright school-leaver, son of West Indian immigrants, who finds himself torn between his parents' church-going conformity and his brother's Black Power militancy. In a bid to find a sense of belonging, he joins his Black friends who, estranged from their submissive parents, seek a sense of purpose in the streets and in chases with the police.
An angry but sincere and balanced film, Pressure deals with the identity struggles that children of immigrants face, Horace Ové making the most of his combination of professional actors and local non-actors from the streets of London. Newly restored by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation in glorious 4K.