A Black boy’s journey through an ineffectual public school system reveals the racial inequities built into everyday British life. Young Kingsley Smith (Kenyah Sandy) is a spirited aspiring astronaut with a love of drawing whose life is turned upside down when he is thrust into a new school for the “educationally subnormal”—a harrowing experience that gradually awakens his mother (Sharlene Whyte) to the institutional mistreatment of the children of West Indian immigrants. Shot on Super 16 mm to evoke BBC television dramas from the 1970s, the final Small Axe film concludes the pentalogy with a hopeful vision of the power of Black-led collective action.
Cast
Kenyah Sandy
Kingsley
Naomi Ackie
Hazel
Jade Anouka
Mrs. Morrison
Sharlene Whyte
Mother
Temirlan Blaev
Pupil
Nigel Boyle
Mr. Hamley
Tabitha Byron
Sheila
Ralph Davis
Senior Teacher
Kate Dickie
Miss Gill
Sam Fourness
Mr. Kimble
Daniel Francis
Esmond Smith
Aiyana Goodfellow
Nina
Roshawn Hewitt
Baz
Tamara Lawrence
Stephanie Smith
Jo Martin
Mrs. Bartholomew
Ryan Masher
Joseph
Kayla Meikle
Mrs. Howard
Adrian Rawlins
Headmaster
