Impoverished and in search of work, Ivan (played by musician Jimmy Cliff) pushes himself towards urban life in hope of finding a job and fulfilling his artistic dreams; a struggle that is met by exploitation, religion and the police.
Caught between success in the charts and danger in the slums, Ivan’s rise to fame in Kingston crackles with an urgent political realism that still feels radical and resonant today.
Most famous for its legendary reggae soundtrack, alongside the foregrounding of spoken Patois and its social documentation of Jamaican life, The Harder They Come is an unforgettable and energizing landmark in Caribbean cinema.