Amazon Prime Video has premiered the trailer for Small Axe: Alex Wheatle, the fourth and penultimate film in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology series for the streaming platform. Alex Wheatle will drop on December 11th, following Mangrove (November 20th), Lovers Rock (November 27th), and Red, White and Blue (December 4th).
Like the other entries in the Small Axe series, Alex Wheatle tells a story within London’s West Indian community from the late Sixties to the mid-Eighties. (The title is derived from the African proverb, “If you are the big tree, we are the small axe.”) The film is based on the real-life writer Alex Wheatle, portrayed here by Sheyi Cole from a young boy through his early adult years. Wheatle spent most of his childhood in a white institutional care home, only finding a community once he moved to London’s Brixton neighborhood, where he was able to grow his passion for music and DJing. After he is thrown in prison during the Brixton Uprising of 1981, he must properly confront his past and heal his childhood trauma.
Alex Wheatle was co-written by McQueen and Alastair Siddons, and also stars Jonathan Jules. Past episodes of Small Axe have starred John Boyega, Letitia Wright, Shaun Parkes, Micheal Ward, and Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn. The final film in the series, Education, stars Kenyah Sandy and Sharlene Whyte and will premiere on December 18th.
