Pressure (1976)

To celebrate The Lonely Londoners, we’re bringing you even more of Sam Selvon’s work. Written in collaboration with director Horace Ové, Pressure became the first Black British directed feature film, unleashing this searing and honest portrait of London in 1976. Now beautifully restored, Pressure is the story of Tony (Herbert Norville), coming of age and at a crossroads. His mother urges him to settle down, while his brother is calling for black uprising, bridling at a white establishment that rejects him. Where is Tony’s place in the mess of modern Britain?

Director Ové – who sadly passed away in 2023– did more than blaze a trail with his debut feature; Pressure is a gripping portrait that reflects Britain back to itself, with truths still hard to swallow nearly fifty years after its release.