The first feature film directed by a Black British woman to be released in the UK, Ngozi Onwurah’s landmark debut is a bold work of post-colonial science fiction, as unique today as it was on release in 1995.
Opening with a re-enactment of the revolt at Igbo Landing, Georgia, in 1803, at which slaves willingly drowned themselves before submitting to their masters, Onwurah’s film moves from the resistance of the past to that of the future, transporting us to the Terrordome, a dystopian enclave of the UK where petty criminal Spike (Valentine Nonyela) is living with Jodie (Saffron Burrows), a woman who has recently fled an abusive relationship.
When Spike’s sister (Suzette Llewellyn) comes into conflict with authoritarian state police, it leads to a chain of events that threatens to bring the city crashing down.
Newcastle-born filmmaker Ngozi Onwurah (Coffee Coloured Children, The Body Beautiful) made one of the most important Black British films with Welcome II the Terrordome, only to find a lack of critical support in 1995.
Now widely recognised as the landmark that it is, her film has lost none of its punch, connecting the history of slavery with police brutality and presenting an uncompromising vision that draws together hip hop, Nigerian Ibo history, the legacy of British racism, and the history of rebellion. A bold and unique landmark of British genre filmmaking.