HERO explores “The Extraordinary Life & Times of Mr. Ulric Cross”. Set in 1941, the film follows Cross played by ikolai Salcedo, a young man from Trinidad, who leaves his island home to seek his fortune. He survives the War as the RAF’s most decorated West Indian. As his life takes another course, he becomes part of the black independence movement that changed history. Cross’ long life eventually spanned key moments of the 20th Century including independence in Africa and then the Caribbean.
What we loved!
Hero is perfectly written and the well casted, with lead roles played beautifully by Nikolai Salcedo and Joseph Marcell. Not only does the film follow his life but also the dynamic and transformative times that Ulric Cross was born into.
We love that the film utilises archive footage, oral testimony and dramatic imaginative reconstruction to brilliantly bring to life the wider struggles of the Windrush generation against popular and institutional racism in Britain.
It also brings to life the fight for colonial liberation in Africa and the Caribbean in the aftermath of the Second World War. This was a subject which needed to be brought to the public domain in the form of film.
The film really succeeds in using Cross’s life as a prism for telling the wider story of decolonisation.
The film is directed and written by Frances-Anne Solomon and features a strong line-up of British actors including Nikolai Salcedo, Joseph Marcell, Jimmy Akingbola, Fraser James, Pippa Nixon & Rudolph Walker.
Film length: / 110 Mins
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