Rock (2019)

Directed by: Sarah Gavron | 93 minutes | drama | Actors: Bukky Bakray, Kosar Ali, D’angelou Osei Kissiedu, Shaneigha-Monik Greyson, Ruby Stokes, Tawheda Begum, Afi Okaidja, Anastasia Dymitrow, Sarah Niles, Layo-Christina Akinlude, Sharon D. Clarke, Islah Abdur-Rahman, Shola Adewusi, Mohammad Amiri, Brie-Morgan Appleton, Joshua Avory, Ashley Merino Bastidas, Nadya Bettioui, Joanna Brookes, Angelica Nicole Cabutotan

British filmmaker Sarah Gavron does not like to be pigeonholed. With ‘Brick Lane’ (2007) she made a film about a young Indian woman who has to survive in a multicultural London that is under growing racial tension in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. ‘Suffragette’ (2015), a historical drama with a star cast, revolved around the courageous women who fought for women’s suffrage in the early twentieth century. And ‘Rocks’ (2019) revolves around a group of teenage girls from different backgrounds in East London, who find support in each other as they grow up in an increasingly hardening society. If there is an overarching theme in Gavron’s diverse oeuvre, it is almost always that it revolves around women. Both in front of and behind the scenes, because she often works with female screenwriters, producers and other crew members. During the promotion for ‘Suffragette’, she and producer Faye Ward regularly heard stories from young women, who in today’s society are under considerable pressure from themselves and those around them. When they realized that not many movies have been made for young women about young women yet, that inspired them to make ‘Rocks’. Gavron: “We decided to set up the film in such a way that young people themselves would be central to creating the film.”

During a workshop with the young people, writer Theresa Ikoko had a special connection with the girl Bukky Bakray, who herself is of British-Nigerian descent. “During that period I was working on a storyline that was very close to my heart, in which a brother-sister relationship is central. I immediately saw how Bukky could shine in that,” says Ikoko. Debutante Bukray plays the title role in ‘Rocks’. Her real name is Shola and she does what every fifteen-year-old girl loves to do: dance, hang out and laugh with her friends and make plans for later. But that carefree youth is put under pressure when Rocks comes home to find a letter from her mother. ‘Just catch your breath, here’s a few bucks for groceries’. Whether Rocks wants to babysit her younger brother Emmanuel (D’Angelou Osei Kissiedu) in the meantime. Now her mother—whose own mother says she’s “not made for motherhood”—has disappeared without a trace before, only to reappear just as suddenly, so Shola isn’t too worried at first. But when she is gone for a very long time and the electricity in their flat is cut off, she is forced to seek temporary shelter with Emmanuel with her friends. Because she is ashamed – and afraid that child protection services will come for her and her brother – she doesn’t tell anyone what exactly is going on. And that puts a lot of pressure on the bond with her friends here and there.

‘Rocks’ is a vibrant film about the resilience, fun and vitality of teenage girls. Due to the mostly improvised dialogues and inexperienced actresses who are filmed as much as possible in their natural habitat, the whole sometimes comes across as somewhat chaotic and unstructured, but that is also the strength of this film. A compliment to casting director Lucy Pardee, who gathered the fresh faces together and dared to cast them for this film. Despite their lack of experience, the young protagonists, Bukray, Osei Kissiedu and Kosar Ali, take the lead as Rocks’ best friend Soumaya. The young Osei Kissiedu has a nice entrance right away when he completely changes the pre-dinner prayer and steals every scene he appears in. But it’s Bukray who hits us the hardest with the extraordinary effort she puts in to shoulder the heavy responsibilities she’s been given. You can call her stubborn and proud, stubborn even if she decides to steal because she needs money for food and drink, but above all she is incredibly brave. The great thing is that despite all the headwinds, she never loses her zest for life and still enjoys dancing, making music and perfecting her friends’ eyebrows just as much as before.

We notice that life is not a fairy tale when Rocks finds it increasingly difficult to disguise the truth. Gavron and her talented crew don’t paint a false picture and underline that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the plight of vulnerable girls like Rocks, but they do offer a hopeful ending that honors the complexity of these cases and expresses their sympathy and compassion for the characters. ‘Rocks’ is a raw, lively and pure drama in the spirit of Ken Loach, which moves and confronts, but at the same time offers hope and guidance.