This film is part of Rentals

One Love 12 rating

Rick Elgood and the legendary Don Letts direct this reggae romance about a rasta musician whose affair with a gospel-singing preacher’s daughter causes a stir in Kingston.

Romance 2005 96 mins

Director: Rick Elgood and Don Letts

Overview

The refreshing, Jamaican-set black love story unusually focuses on forbidden desire between two black protagonists, rather than the more typical trope of inter-racial romance. Serena (Cherine Anderson) is a prim and proper preacher’s daughter with a stunning singing voice, which catches the ear of laid-back rasta musician Kassa (Ky-Mani Marley, son of Bob).

Their shared love of music soon blossoms into an attraction that threatens to form a schism between Kingston’s Christian and Rastafarian communities. With a subplot around the manoeuvres of a Machiavellian record producer and a delightful early film role from Idris Elba (sporting a West Indian accent), One Love is a black love story with a difference, filled with great reggae as you’d expect from a film co-directed by the legendary Don Letts.