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The lives of a group of friends in a London school is wonderfully bought to life in Rocks |
Set in an inner-London school, the film follows Rocks (Bukky
Bakray), a black teenage girl, left caring for her young brother Emmanuel
(D’angelou Osei Kissiedu) after her mother walks out on them (leaving just a
note and small envelope of cash). Terrified of being taken in and separated by
social services, Rocks struggles to cope with the pressures forced upon her.
It’s a simple plot – and could have been told with a
Loachesque bleakness, like a modern-day Cathy Come Home. Instead though
Gavon and writers Theresa Ikoko and Claire Wilson frame a story that could have
been misery with warmth, love and hope. The film’s essential optimism and faith
in the goodness of people makes it – for all the heart-breaking sadness it
includes – a far more involving and moving film than a social lecture would
have been.
It also treats its teenage characters not as future
tearaways, thoughtless millennials or shallow bullies. Instead they feel like
real, breathing and genuine people, capable of moments of thoughtlessness but still
fundamentally decent. Rocks’ best friend Sumaya (Kosar Ali, who is brilliant) is
desperate to help her friend – and, for all the tears Rocks jealousy of her
settled family causes, persists in being loyal and mature to the end. Even the
disastrous mistake caused by Rocks’ friend Agnes comes only from an overwhelming
desire to help. What also makes this film feel optimistic and real is that
these disagreements are resolved with a mature kindness and emotional
intelligence we could all learn from.
At the centre of is Rocks herself, played with an
astonishingly naturalness and emotional rawness by Bukky Bakray. Rocks is a
child forced to become an adult too early – eventually dragging Emmanuel around
streets, from house to house and pretending she is his mother to book rooms in
a hotel – all the time terrified to let her situation become known to social
services. Rocks doesn’t have much in her life – a deceased father, a useless
mother – and the thought of losing what family she has left is agonising to
her. It’s what lies behind her bitter, subconscious, envy and rage at seeing
the large and supportive family Sumaya has. It’s everything she has ever wanted
but never had.
The only place where she can truly relax and be a child is
at school. There she is free for a while of the pressures of home and caring
for her brother. Gavron’s film shows an extraordinarily refreshing look at
inner-city school life. These are kids who may behave ‘badly’ at points (but boisterous
more than anything, captured in a food fight that breaks out in a cooking
class), but they are passionate, engaged and ambitious. They have genuine
dreams for the future – lawyer, businessmen, make-up artist are all careers
mentioned – they seize with fascination on a lesson taught about Picasso. Far
from the cliché of drifters, the film shows a world of teenagers full of
passion, interest and talent – some of which, you fear, may never be truly
tapped into.
It makes a real contrast with the harried doubts and
concerns Rocks has to deal with in the ‘adult’ world. Her situation drives her
to theft, lying and puts divides between her and her friends, who she seems
unable to really open herself up to and ask for help. Her anxiety is picked up
on by her adorable brother Emmanuel (D’angelou Osei Kissiedu gives a phenomenal
performance of warmth, cheek and later devastating fear), who makes it his
mission to cheer her up: a scene in a hotel where his simple, gentle attempts
to comfort her and make her laugh are tear-inducingly endearing.
It’s all part of the winning humanity at the heart of the
film. There are mistakes made in this film by its characters, forced
separations and painful arguments. But, where other films would have used this
as a bitter spiral to hammer home a depressing message about the bleakness of
the world (and by implication of communities like this), this film remains
optimistic. Despite everything, it ends with an image of a group of friends
laughing and playing on a beach – they’ve feuded but have an emotional maturity
to forgive adults could do with. It’s part of the fundamentally positive
outlook.
The film even manages to not demonise social services in the
way so many similar films do. Truth be told its clear Rocks can’t cope with
these pressures – her friends know it even she and Emmanuel know it. The
contrast between the girl we see in the opening moments and the increasingly
insular and harassed figure she becomes is striking. Social services are
genuinely concerned people – who are right to be concerned. The eventual
resolution is remarkable for its normality and even touches of positivity and
hope for a new beginning. It’s a film that explores the life of the less well
off in the inner-city without preaching at or depressing us.
And that optimism is its greatest strength, as it allows us
to see people rather than social issues. It’s an agenda-free film that simply
tries to tell a human story – and, with the energy and passion its shot with,
immerses us in the lives of a group of people many of us would walk past
without thinking about. Rocks is about a world where people want to
rally round and help, where hope and new beginnings can be found in any
situation. It doesn’t shy away from moments of pain – and there are moments
here that will break your heart – but it never loses its optimism and humanity.
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