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TIME OUT

Injustice (Ken Fero & Tariq Mehmood, 2001, UK) With the relatives of Shiji Lapite, Brian Douglas, Ibrahima Sey and Joy Gardner. 100 mins. Documentary.

It's not about Apartheid-era South Africa, and neither is it about the Aboriginal victims of the Western Australian authorities. No, this is about down home, English-style oppression, and it features some of the worst cases of violent death in police custody of modern times. Since David Oluwale became the first black person to die in just this way in the UK in 1969, 1000 others have followed him to a similar end. No police officer has been convicted in relation to any of these cases. Now, seven years of inside footage tells the full story from the people's side as the film follows four of the victims' families, charting their ceaseless efforts to retrieve the bodies, the sham of police investigations and the often dubious role played by a supposedly independent judiciary. Finished just days ago, 'Injustice' builds its case calmly and precisely, to devastating effect. Harrowing and profoundly moving, this is film that flares with focussed anger at the ongoing hypocrisy of police exclusion from normal and expected prosecution. A rousing hymn to united struggle and required viewing for every concerned citizen of these often repressive islands, 'Injustice' is a requiem for the murdered, a celebration of family commitment and a call to protest and redress that must not go unheard. (Gareth Evans/April 2001)