Rocks

                                                      Reviewed by Christian Waters at AFI 2019

An all too real story about a young woman “Rocks” a British-Nigerian girl (played by Bukky Bakray) with a zest for life and a desire for a better future, than the one life has presented to her. Her father is dead, and her mother suffers from apparent mental health issues, and she has taken on the day to day watching of her younger brother Emmanuel. Despite these challenges Rocks continues to look forward to her future and planning for what she would eventually like to do as she gets closer to exams.
All this seems to come to an apparent halt when Rocks mother leaves, she and Emmanuel with nothing but a few pounds to buy groceries with. Rocks does her best to hold it all together for them both, but things become increasingly desperate for she and Emmanuel when the power gets shut off and her mother does not appear to be returning anytime soon. Rocks has a tremendously supportive group of friends, that are more than happy to help her in her time of need to the best of their abilities, yet when Rocks with young Emmanuel more or less take to the streets after Social Services are called in, they encourage her to ask for help.
Rocks is adamant that she is fine and needs no one and strikes out at her friends, rejecting them and the lives that they have in a desperate attempt to keep she and her brother together she tries to do it alone. Yet when she turns to one of them for a place to stay for the night, she soon finds herself betrayed and finds the friend has called Social Service and both Rocks and Emmanuel are placed into foster care.
Rocks and her friends find themselves making peace with one another and plan a trip to the coast where Emmanuel has been placed into foster care for Emmanuel’s birthday. The journey takes them to Emmanuel’s school where Rocks finds that he is happy and maybe the life that he had come to be in was something better than they had come from.
Rocks was a beautifully done movie, a story of friendship amongst young woman, of heartbreak, sadness and loss, a story of grace, maturity and love in a young woman well beyond her years.