NYFF 58 Review: Steve McQueen’s 'Mangrove' Rallies Against Injustice
“These are new men; new types of human beings. These men have perspective. They know particularly that they glory in the struggle. They are not demoralized or defeated or despairing persons. They are leaders, but are rooted deep among those they lead."
The door of the Mangrove gives way suddenly and they come in a barrage and without warning. In the commotion, they seize the patrons of the West Indian restaurant and carry them out of sight to places unknown. It is no surprise that they’re here in their custodian helmets and with billy clubs. But at this moment, it is unexpected. They cite as reasons for the raid false reports of drugs, prostitution, and the illegal selling of alcohol without a license. But as the Metropolitan Police depart leaving the establishment in shambles, they walk by a sign in the window proudly declaring “Black Ownership.”
Frank Crichlow (Shaun Parkes) owns the Mangrove which is situated in 1968 London’s Notting Hill neighborhood and opening night for the restaurant finds the largely Black community overflowing from the hole-in-the-wall establishment and dancing into the cobbled avenue to the tune of Jamaican steelpans. Mainstay activitsts like orator Darcus Howe (Malachi Kirby) and local Black Panther leader Altheia Jones-Lecointe (Letitia Wright) ensure that the Mangrove is a local favorite not just for “spicy cuisine” but also political discussion. Frank himself insists he isn’t political, he just wants to create a place for his neighbors to convene, all the while a portrait of Jamaican activist Paul Bogle adorns the walls of his restaurant.
When the Mangrove is raided repeatedly without justification, the community plans a “Hands Off Mangrove” demonstration that culminates in a march on the local police precinct. The community now protests in the same streets they danced. After constables escalate the march into physical altercations, nine of the protesters find themselves arrested and tried for inciting a riot.
As the “Mangrove 9,” Barbara Beese, Rupert Boyce, Frank Crichlow, Rhodan Gordon, Darcus Howe, Anthony Innis, Altheia Jones-LeCointe, Rothwell Kentish, and Godfrey Millett face a decision to make: do they fight the charges and risk the full punishment if they lose or plead guilty and hope for a more lenient sentencing? Nothing in their life so far has given them any indication that the British justice system will be impartial in their trial, no matter their decision. In fact, the phrase “faith in the British justice system” is met with near unanimous laughter in Mangrove. Perhaps they laugh because they know the police harass their friends and family while simply walking back from the grocery store. Or maybe it’s that when community members disappear, the local jail is where they usually can be found, suspiciously abused and released with no charges. Or maybe every attempt of escalating these issues to local law enforcement, national law enforcement, and local representatives is met with disbelief. Whatever it may be, they seem to laugh because they tire of perpetual injustice.
Director and co-writer Steve McQueen imbues his retelling of the Mangrove 9 with a central dilemma of choice. Do we always have the ability to choose when we take a stand against injustice? Or does history choose for us? Frank does not decide for the Mangrove restaurant to be the home-away-from-home it clearly is for so many. That is decided for him. But the Mangrove is just a place for gathering, surely Frank can walk away anytime he pleases.
In fact, he once tries to wager his restaurant in a local card game, seemingly with the intent to lose it and be free of its weight on him. His community declines the wager. But the Mangrove is not on trial for a decade of its life like Frank. He is a gambling man but is not willing to gamble with his life. He knows when the odds are stacked against him, and he does not seem convinced that a stand for his community on this issue will produce change. This is a dilemma with which many in the Mangrove 9 grapple.
McQueen’s retelling is proportioned so that nearly half the runtime of Mangrove is inside the four walls of the courtroom. Here, the double-standards of the British justice system are stretched so starkly thin that any quickly tension boils over and cannot be ignored. We are given compelling addresses by Jones-LeCoint and Howe, expertly delivered by Wright and Kirby, that bear the burden to exonerate themselves of the charges while also contextualizing the unbalanced law and order of the country. Ultimately the jury has the responsibility to issue the verdict, but each maneuver by the 9 are pointedly directed to the figureheads of the justice system: the judge, the constables, and the prosecutor.
Those concerned with a shocking outcome or a signature climax might not find much originality from the witness stands or benches in Mangrove. But with the screen-time allotted to the trial, McQueen does not seem concerned with breaking the mold. Mangrove provides ample time for the audience to sit with the accused, developing an individual camaraderie with the audience that provides the compulsion to anchor its weight to more than just its time period.
Mangrove’s parallels to today are front and center. With each week that goes by, there are more local and national examples in the United States that look and feel like the “Hands Off Mangrove” march. There are charges and miscarriages of justice for what are supposedly protected rights on this soil. With each example, we feel more and more the urge to laugh at the justice system that produces so much anger in all of us.
But McQueen hammers home what the Mangrove 9 already know: that even a victory for them does not put a stop for the reasons why they scoff at their justice system. Being acquitted of inciting a riot does not cease the police stoppages and the targeting of black youth in public. It does not scrub the slurs against immigrants graffitied in the currently gentrifying neighborhood of 1968 Notting Hill. And it does not adequately assign blame for stigmas produced by the color of one’s skin.
After the trial, the raids on the Mangrove do not stop. The fight is clearly not over.
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