Never-before released in the U.S., Franco Rosso’s Babylon had its world premiere at Cannes in 1980 but the New York Film Festival deemed it “too controversial, and likely to incite racial tension” (Vivien Goldman, Time Out) that same year. Raw and smoldering, it follows a young dancehall DJ (Brinsley Forde, M.B.E., frontman of landmark British reggae group Aswad) in Thatcher-era Brixton as he pursues his musical ambitions, while battling fiercely against the racism and xenophobia of employers, neighbors, police, and the National Front.
Written by Martin Stellman (Quadrophenia) and shot by two-time Oscar® winner Chris Menges (The Killing Fields) with beautiful, smoky cinematography that's been compared to Taxi Driver, Babylon is fearless and unsentimental, yet tempered by the hazy bliss of the dancehall set to a blistering reggae, dub, and lovers rock soundtrack featuring Aswad, Johnny Clarke, Yabby You, and anchored by Dennis Bovell’s (The Slits) atmospheric score.
Babylon can be streamed on Kanopy, Kino Now, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, and Vudu. It can also be purchased on Blu-ray and DVD.
Directed by Franco Rosso
Screenplay by Martin Stellman & Franco Rosso
Photographed by Chris Menges, B.S.C., A.S.C.
Produced by Gavrik Losey
Music by Dennis Bovell
Ital Lion music by Aswad
Starring Brinsley Forde, M.B.E., Karl Howman, Trevor Laird, Archie Pool, Brian Bovell, David N. Haynes, Victor Romero Evans, Beverly Michaels
United Kingdom • 1980
In English and Jamaican patois with subtitles
95 minutes • Color • 1.85:1
“CRITIC’S PICK. Still feels new… You’re looking at people who, in 1980 England, were, at last, being properly, seriously seen.”
—Wesley Morris, The New York Times
“A STORY WITH LITERALLY EPIC STAKES. It’s no surprise why the film may resonate now—its themes of finding community through art and trying to exist in a society that doesn't want you are unfortunately both timeless and extremely current.”
—Jaya Saxena, GQ
“REMARKABLE. Never lets go for a moment.”
—Derek Malcolm, The Guardian
“FEARLESS. Loud and musical and cheerful and funny, and also tragic.”
—David Robinson, The Times
“FEW FILMS PORTRAY THIS MOMENT IN BLACK BRITISH LIFE QUITE LIKE BABYLON.”
—Hua Hsu, The New Yorker (Please note—contains spoilers.)
“RELEVANT and RADICAL.”
—Tom Huddleston, Time Out
“BOISTEROUS, studded with obscenity, patois, and the BRASH personalities of the men at its center… It’s FAR MORE THAN A SOCIAL LESSON OR A HISTORICAL ARTIFACT—but it’s also INDISPENSABLE for showing us how it was that the culture of Jamaican sound system became the signature of this immigrant working class, why that mattered, and what was at stake.”
—K. Austin Collins, Vanity Fair
“EXPLODES IN THE GUT with a powerful mix of pain and pleasure. Like the reggae music that pulses through it, Babylon is RICH, ROUGH and REAL. And like the street life of the young black Londoners it portrays, it's THREATENING, TOUCHING, VIOLENT and FUNNY.”
—Simon Perry, Variety
“INVALUABLE. Nearly four decades after its Cannes premiere, the pic is finally getting U.S. distribution... it deserves a robust welcome.”
— John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter
“FIVE STARS. One of the greatest British films.”
—MOJO
“REVOLUTIONARY.”
—Miguel Cullen, The Independent
“MUST be seen.”
—NME
“An INSTANT CLASSIC.”
—British Film Institute
“ASSERTIVE AND EBULLIENT, BABYLON IS AS ALIVE AS A MOVIE CAN BE to the everyday mesh of liberating art, humorous camaraderie and hazardous political reality. Dennis Bovell’s reggae soundtrack… is a master class of mood — a sonic heartbeat full of joy, pain and fury, the needle drops like matches struck and the music an insistent, scented flame you hear, see and feel.”
—Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times
World Premiere 1980 Cannes Semaine de la critique
North American Premiere 1981 Los Angeles International Film Exposition
[AFI FEST]
Official Selection 1981 Festival of Festivals [TIFF]
Winner 1981 Evening Standard British Film Awards Most Promising Filmmaker (Franco Rosso)
U.S. Theatrical Premiere March 8, 2019 in New York—BAM