The multifaceted politics of Britain in profound view

With the streets of the UK exploding in violent clashes between far-right racist thugs, anti-fascist multicultural social justice warriors and police after the tragic stabbings of three young girls in Southport, it may seem to outsiders the idea of melting-pot Britain is an illusion. Rather, the racist antisocial, hatred-stoking behaviour of Tommy Robinson and his English Defence League is the real and ugly face of white, post-Brexit UK life.

However, thanks to the pioneering work of generations of British filmmakers from different walks of life, the truth is the UK has long battled with its changing identity in the post-empire period. It has evolved from a place for only Englishmen to one where different cultures and identities are embraced, helping to create a multi-ethnic, diverse and rich new society.

Here are three films that in their own, and very British, ways attempt to confront the issues of racism, immigration and diversity in modern Britain with serious and sometimes lighthearted but always touching and provocative effect.

The Arthouse Essential

Made in Britain — YouTube

Tim Roth blew on to screens and into stardom as a 16-year-old racist skinhead Trevor in veteran social issue tackling director Alan Clarke’s 1982 television play, written by David Leland as part of a series of TV films examining the British educational system under the title Tales Out of School.

Trevor has been charged for throwing a brick through the window of a shop owned by a Pakistani man and brought by a social worker to a residential assessment centre, where his punishment will be determined.

As his assessment unfolds, Trevor moves from a young, smart, racist and arrogant young man who believes that he is a success, to a snivelling, battered boy who has been shown by the outside world how much tougher it is.

Leland’s script smartly avoids prejudging Trevor for his outrageous beliefs and vicious racism, and makes him a character who, though very unlikeable, is not beyond empathy.

Clarke’s film — buoyed by a truly formidable performance from Roth — takes a hard stance against Trevor and the hatred that he spews while also avoiding an easy answer as to what to do about the broader social problem he represents.

With Thatcher’s Britain having created a bleak reality for working-class Britons of all colours and creeds, Made in Britain reminds us that it’s not only Rolls-Royce and BAE arms that are made in the UK, but that desperation, vicious hatred of others and wrong-headed prejudicial thinking that are the spin-offs of a society that fails to look after all its people.

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The Stone Cold Classic

Playing Away — YouTube

Director Horace Ove’s seminal 1976 film Pressure was the first feature to be directed by a black British filmmaker. Whereas that film is celebrated for its hard look at the realities of black immigrant life in the UK, this somewhat slighter and lighter film from 1986 is a comedy that wraps its social critique in gentle humour about difference and misunderstanding.

Though criticised for its perhaps overly stereotyped characters representing English middle-class village life — monocled, pipe-smoking colonels and prim vicars — Playing Away, written by playwright Caryl Phillips, is a smarter film than critics gave it credit for.

In the village of Sneddington, it’s the annual cricket match taking place during “Third World Week”. Cue a well-intentioned but utterly misplaced invitation for the mostly Jamaican, pot-smoking, life-loving members of the Brixton XI to get on the bus and come and show the conservative Sneddingtonians what cricket and urban British life are really about.

Though things may take some expected sports movie turns, Phillips’ script, Ove’s loving direction of the cricket scenes and a decidedly bitter finale, keep the film from falling into the inspirational trap of so many in the genre. Rather, the film remains a quiet, gently humorous and pertinent examination of the big questions of race, belonging and working together for a common goal.

The Diamond in the Rough

East is East — Rent or buy from Apple TV+

Damian O’Donnell’s sleeper hit from 1999 is the kind of feel-good, cultural diversity dramedy that we see so often in British international releases these days. But beneath its quietly charming surface lurk some difficult questions about the battles that rage in immigrant families between past and future, homeland and new home, first and second generations.

Set in the northern town of Salford in 1971, the film focuses on the trials and tribulations of the Khan family. Of particular concern are the difficulties of paterfamilias George (Om Puri) as he tries to keep his children, who are the product of his relationship with his white British wife Ella (Linda Bassett), from falling prey to the temptations of modern life. It’s at the expense of the traditional ways and values he’s desperately trying to instil in them.

When he insists that his children submit to traditional arranged marriages, all hell breaks loose as the they band together to rebel against their father and the stuffy, out-of-touch traditions he’s so insistent on maintaining.

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