Babylon (film)

Babylon is a 1980 British film co-written by Martin Stellman (writer of Quadrophenia) and Franco Rosso, who also directed it. Produced by Gavrik Losey and the National Film Finance Corporation, the film is regarded as a classic.

It depicts the struggles of a Black British working-class musician and stars Brinsley Forde of the reggae band Aswad. Babylon also starred Karl Howman and Trevor Laird. Music was scored by Dennis Bovell. Included are songs by Aswad, Johnny Clarke, and Jeff Wayne (who wrote the musical version of The War of the Worlds), among others.

Babylon was filmed on the streets of Deptford and Brixton, London. The story centres on sound system culture and themes of police racism, violence against blacks, poverty and disillusion with lack of opportunities.

Brinsley Forde's character is a Deptford garage-hand by day and a disco-dispenser by night. The film follows him as he loses his job as a car mechanic (Mel Smith has a cameo role as his racist boss), gets beaten up by police, is falsely charged, and forced to go on the run, falling out with his girlfriend and finally stabbing a racist neighbour in anger and frustration. The film finishes with a posse of policemen smashing down the doors of a music hall.

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