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Rage
A frustrated Peckham youth turns to crime to finance his music career in Newton Aduaka’s highly charged feature debut; once acclaimed as 'the British La Haine'.
Director: Newton Aduaka
Overview
Three Peckham youths, Jamie aka 'Rage', Godwin aka 'G' and Thomas aka 'T', are a rap trio who need £4,000 to make a record. Broke, but determined to cut his own record, Rage leads his friends on a drastic course of action, planning to burgle T's wealthy parents' house. Caught up with drug gangs, and violent clashes with racist police officers, Rage spirals out of control, driving his friends further away from him.
After premiering at Toronto and then the BFI London Film Festival in 1999, Rage was acclaimed as a fresh and vital urban story from an exciting new talent in director Newton Aduaka, the driving force behind an independent production that pulsates to a vibrant soundtrack sourced from underground hip/trip hop labels such as Jazz Fudge and Ninja Tune. But since then, the film seemed to disappear from view, until being recently championed by the Tigritudes: Pan African Film Cycle festival and described as "the British La Haine". On its 25th anniversary, UK audiences can now finally revist this elusive film, which could be said to constitute the missing link between the socially conscious drama of Pressure (1975) and the more crime-focused era of Black British films begat by Bullet Boy (2004).
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