Solitaire à micro ouvert (Open Mic Solitaire). 1983. France. Written and directed by Julius-Amédée Laou. With Serge Ubrette, Marilyne Canto. DCP. In French; English subtitles. 18 min.
My Beautiful Laundrette. 1985. UK. Written and directed by Stephen Frears. Screenplay by Hanif Kureishi. With Saeed Jaffrey, Roshan Seth, Daniel Day-Lewis, Gordon Warnecke, Shirley Anne Field. DCP. 97 min.
In My Beautiful Laundrette, one of the most memorable, audacious portraits of the Thatcher era, Omar, a young Pakistani British entrepreneur (Gordon Warnecke) with dreams of a self-made life in South London, crosses paths with Johnny, a childhood friend (Daniel Day-Lewis) who is now the leader of a gang of right-wing extremists. As Omar navigates the pressures and expectations of his family and his own personal ambitions, Johnny’s resurgence brings unexpected consequences for his business and love life. In French Martinican playwright and director Julius-Amédée Laou’s Open Mic Solitaire, a young Black man whose brother was murdered by skinheads hijacks a French Caribbean radio station to deliver a call to arms against systematic racist violence—and society’s general indifference to it.