070 REVIEW
Directed by
SARAH GAVRON
Starring
BUKKY BAKRAY
KOSAR ALI
D’ANGELOU OSEI KISSIEDU
Released
24 APRIL
ANTICIPATION.
Sceptical the story was in the
right hands, but definitely
intrigued by it.
ENJOYMENT.
My cheeks are sore from smiling.
IN RETROSPECT.
A pleasure from top to bottom –
I can’t wait to rewatch with my
own girl’s school friends.
t’s the first day back off summer break and Rocks
(Bukky Bakray) comes home from school to a
note from her mum saying she needs to clear her
head, and to look after her younger brother. Rocks
suspected this, querying the special breakfast her
mum made that morning – yam and eggs – and asking
whether she was alright. We learn Funke (Layo-
Christina Akinlude) has abandoned her children
before, and struggles to manage her medication.
Director Sarah Gavron and writers Theresa Ikoko
and Claire Wilson tell Rocks’ story from the moment
she is stripped of parental care and thrust into the
role of care-giver, but it’s the unbreakable bonds of
teenage friendship that sit at the heart of the story.
Although principally a social-realist drama set
in and around in East London, Rocks is fortunately
bereft of the miserablism associated with the
genre. As Rocks and her seven-year-old brother
Emmanuelle (D’angelou Osei Kissiedu) bounce
from place to place and avoid social services, their
desperate situation is punctuated with more
carefree and entertaining scenes at school. They sell
individual sweets from a multipack, place bets on
who’s buying six wings and chips, teach one another
how to use a tampon, and conduct massive food fights
in home economics class.
With a cast of first timers grounding the drama,
Rocks is both a love letter to community and a nod
to black women who seldom get to be girls. The
central group of Rocks , Sumaya (Kosar Ali), Khadija
(Tawheda Begum), Yawa (Afi Okaidja), Sabina
(Anastasia Dymitrow) and Agnes (Ruby Stokes)
speak to one another with the freeness and shorthandthat comes naturally from attending an all girl’s
school, unrestricted by self-doubt or male attention.
Their only focus is looking out for one another, and
it’s delighftul to behold Bakray’s performance – she
carries the film on her narrow shoulders. While the
character’s circumstances should deny the whimsy
of a more typical coming-of-age film, she still allows
Rocks’ soft edges to be seen – she displays the full
spectrum of Black girlhood beyond resilience. Kosar
Ali gives a desperately tender portrayal of loyalty as
Sumaya, her funny one-liners only rivalled by mouthy
scamp Emmanuelle.
It would be remiss to overlook the potential
power dynamics between a white director and her
predominantly black cast. Close-up camera work
by Hélène Louvart during a dance scene where
Rocks leads the class to ‘Shaku Shaku’, verges on
the voyeuristic.
And yet Gavron has used her clout to pull together
an inclusive team that goes beyond representational
box ticking. She has made a film powered by real
empathy and joy. Bakray isn’t a black face in a white
story – there is space for cultural nuance. Subtleties
in the writing highlight deeper seated cultural issues;
such as the kinds of support offered to Rocks by black
teachers versus white ones, and the misguided trust
concerned white people place in government bodies,
not acknowledging the hostility they often have
towards ethnic communities.
Gavron and her team make space for girls like
Rocks, instead of hemming them into a stereotype.
The film ends as it began: with a black screen and the
laughter of teenage girls. RŌGAN GRAHAMRocks
I