Rockers

Rockers is a deep delight for anyone keen to explore Jamaican culture. ‘Horsemouth’ is a man trying to feed his family, buying a motorbike to distribute hot reggae records around town. He runs into strife as he loses his wheels and turns ‘Robin Hood’. The roll-call of amazing reggae stars, often playing themselves or simply hanging out, is more than reason enough to see this, but Rockers is uniquely special in its wonderful and unique texture of the actual 1978 Kingston, full of genuine vibes and off-kilter humour. Screening with the World premiere of the new Jamaican short Sink or Swim.

At Cannes it was screened on the same night with Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now and there was an incident with thousands of people, mounted police, and riot police. There were people who wanted to get in, the tickets were all sold out, and mayhem broke out. It was all over the front pages next day. I was intrigued by the reviews in France, even by conservative papers. The first sentence in Le Monde was “Rockers is not a film, it is a work of art. So good it is difficult to believe, yet it is real.”

Director Theodoros Bafaloukos, from a 2010 interview with VICE