Genre Drama

Education (2020)

Item: Education
Rating: 3.5
Author: Ross McLaren

★★★½ — Education (2020)

Education is the fifth and final film in Steve McQueen's Small Axe anthology, a series of five films made for BBC Film that together examine the lives of West Indian communities in Britain from the late 1960s through to the 1980s. Each film stands on its own, but Education carries particular weight as the closing chapter, landing on a subject that is both historical and uncomfortably resonant: the widespread practice by British local education authorities of placing Black children into so-called "educationally subnormal" schools, a classification that research and subsequent investigation found to be applied in a racially discriminatory fashion. The film is set in the early 1970s and draws on real events, giving it a documentary solidity beneath its drama. That it was shot on Super 16 mm film stock, a deliberate choice to evoke the texture of BBC television productions from that era, speaks to the care McQueen and his collaborators brought to placing the audience inside the period rather than simply observing it from a safe distance. At 66 minutes, it is among the shorter entries in the anthology, but brevity here is not a limitation. It is a feature.

McQueen arrived at Small Axe as one of the most acclaimed British directors working anywhere in the world, with a filmography that had moved between gallery installation work, austere chamber dramas, and large-scale prestige productions. The Small Axe films represented something of a return to a more personal register, stories rooted in a community and a history that McQueen has spoken about as formative to his own understanding of Britain. The production sits under the BBC Film banner, which has a long tradition of backing work that operates in this space between television event and cinema release, polished but rarely flashy, socially engaged without being didactic (at its best, anyway). The cast of Education centres on young Kenyah Sandy as Kingsley Smith, a boy whose intelligence and imagination are plain to anyone willing to look, but whose fate is being quietly decided by a system that is not looking at all. Naomi Ackie and Jade Anouka appear in supporting roles, while Temirlan Blaev rounds out a cast assembled with evident care. The emotional anchor alongside Sandy, however, is Sharlene Whyte as Kingsley's mother Agnes, a performance that carries enormous responsibility given where the film's second half turns its attention. For other examples of drama that places young or marginalised protagonists at the mercy of systems indifferent to them, it is worth looking at some of the other films covered here, including Mustang and Tiger Stripes, both of which explore how institutions and communities can close around individuals with quietly suffocating force.

The film received its premiere as part of the wider Small Axe rollout in late 2020, a year in which conversations about race, institutional racism, and the particular textures of British history in that regard were already running at considerable volume. Whether that context sharpened its reception or whether it simply arrived exactly when it was needed is a question worth sitting with. Either way, it did not go unnoticed. As a piece of filmmaking within a longer series, it also rewards viewers who have followed the anthology from the beginning, though it works perfectly well on its own terms for anyone coming to it fresh.

Education (2020), the final film in Steve McQueen’s searing Small Axe anthology, is a quiet yet devastating indictment of systemic racism in 1970s Britain, specifically the discriminatory practice that saw Black children wrongly labeled as “educationally subnormal” and shuffled into segregated schools with little hope of advancement. Based on true events, the film follows 12-year-old Kingsley Smith (a luminous Kenyah Sandy), a bright, curious boy whose dreams of becoming an astronaut are nearly crushed by a system designed to fail him simply because of the color of his skin. What makes Education so powerful is its restraint. McQueen doesn’t resort to melodrama; instead, he builds tension through everyday indignities, the dismissive glances from teachers, the bureaucratic indifference, the slow dawning of injustice in Kingsley’s eyes. The real emotional core, however, lies with his mother, Agnes (played with fierce grace by Sharlene Whyte), whose journey from weary compliance to determined advocacy forms the film’s moral backbone. Her quiet resolve (and the community of Black parents who rally around her) is where the film finds its triumph. The performances are uniformly excellent, the period detail immaculate, and the score subtly underscores the sorrow and resilience woven through the story. And yes, it brought tears. Not just from sadness, but from anger at a history too often buried, and from hope sparked by collective resistance. A masterful, deeply human film that transforms institutional cruelty into a story of dignity, awakening, and empowerment. Education doesn’t just recount history; it demands we remember, reflect, and act. A fitting, heart-wrenching, and ultimately uplifting close to McQueen’s essential Small Axe series.

What stays with me, long after the credits, is that combination of fury and something close to gratitude. Fury at how routine this injustice was, how administrative, how utterly mundane in its cruelty, and gratitude that McQueen made the film with enough precision and humanity to make you feel all of that without ever letting it tip into exploitation. I have watched a fair amount of drama over the years that takes on institutional wrongdoing and ends up feeling worthy rather than affecting, but Education never goes cold on you. It keeps its warmth even at its most damning. If you have not yet watched the Small Axe series, I would encourage you to start from the beginning, but if this is your entry point, it is not a bad one. Just be somewhere you do not mind having a moment afterwards. It earns that.

Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2020 | Watched: 2026-03-10

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Trailer

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