Sembène Film Festival: Yardie

Idris Elba directorial debut, Yardie, is based on the 1992 Victor Headley cult-novel of the same name. Yardie explores the story of D, a young Jamaican man who is brought into the underworld of London drug-dealing. Set mostly in the London Borough of Hackney, D is given the job of courier carrying cocaine from Jamaica to London, where he reunites with his lost childhood love and young daughter who moved there to make a better life for themselves. The term “Yardie” is slang referring to Jamaican descendants living abroad, often involved in illicit activities. Much of the movie is narrated in D’s voiceover, explaining how witnessing his brother’s murder as a child haunts him and forces him to grow up under the mentorship of a Kingston Don. (run-time 102 min)