What a story! Reportedly, several adolescent males caused havoc at Vue cinema in Birmingham as they brought disturbingly large weapons and caused a disruption in a screening for Frozen 2: a children’s film.
Many people such as the producers of the film ‘Blue’s Story’ and the director Andrew Onwubolu (Rapman) suffered as they had to face the repercussions of the film being banned in all Vue Cinemas in the UK, therefore, stopping the film from being successful in revenue even though the film itself has no relevance to the incident.
It’s a British independent film about two young friends who become rivals in a street war which is also a big issue in the UK, especially London as its central point of knife crime. The film portrays the deprivation of certain London cities and the struggles of young people in the urban lifestyle.
The act of the young boys had no correlation to blue’s story which caused viewers to come up with the conclusion that it’s an act of racial prejudice as the youths were all of Asian descent and the director is a Black African male with a predominantly Black British cast as people of colour are often the main demographic of victims of knife crime. A black directed movie is very important to the black community as it’s rare you see an independent film with so much success especially with minorities known for having few opportunities.
Some viewers say the exposure of gang culture to the youth caused them to act out in this manner. Sad how the film was produced with great purpose and it's clear that young people hadn’t received the deep message. What more can we do to educate the youth? When will knife crime in the UK die down? The real question is what can we do to put the film back in Vue?
Deslie Madika, student at Oaks Park High School
