Raluca de Soleil reviews ‘Britishness’, a film which sees Eelyn Lee and a young group of writers from Sheffield embarking on a journey to examine issues of identity, race and belonging in the UK today.
On September 10, 2012, I left Romania and arrived in Sheffield without family, friends or acquaintances. I was eighteen. It was my first day in Britain. The healthy, leafy trees surrounding St George’s Church framed a sky that was much brighter than I had imagined. I grew roots which pierced the cement. I used people’s conduct to sample Britishness and compared them with people born in the land I had left. I searched relentlessly for clear-cut cultural differences to understand which country I related to most and where I belonged.
During the first few months, I met people from more backgrounds than I had in the entirety of my previous life. I phoned my mother regularly to express my enthusiasm for this melting pot of cultures, where seemingly everyone had a place. Soon after, workmates claimed that asylum seekers reportedly get paid for doing nothing, while Romanians pull wages down, steal jobs and claim benefits. “It’s the Jamaicans and Eastern Europeans!” a stranger shouted on the 95 bus. In Hillsborough, a man waving a stick with a sharp metal tip hurled racial slurs at a driver that he thought to be Chinese then turned to me and asked if I’m Bulgarian as he could not stand Bulgarian women. I realised that I had mistaken diversity for inclusion.
Watching Eelyn Lee’s newest documentary Britishness was an immersive, eye-opening experience. The film is an in-depth enquiry into identity, belonging, community, nationality and citizenship, as shaped by race, religion, and privilege. Conducted in collaboration with young writers and cultural figures from Sheffield, it presents a comprehensive study of Britain’s internal borders, its binaries and human costs. This collection of personal experiences and wordsmithery is a mirror of our political times from which one can readily derive sociological and psychological meaning.
“The film is an in-depth enquiry into identity, belonging, community, nationality and citizenship, as shaped by race, religion, and privilege.”
Aiming to explore how today’s climate of division is affecting our sense of belonging, especially for those hailing from other lands, Britishness embarks on a vibrant journey across community gatherings, including the Sheffield Carnival, Eid and the World Cup. By gathering a breadth of experiences from people engaged in community activities, Eelyn and her collaborators instil a sense of unity among those interviewed and build a direct relationship between the viewer and the participants. Most discussions take place within groups, either facilitated by writer Desirée Reynolds or the interviewees themselves, asking open questions such as “What does Britishness mean to you?”. These discussions create a space where participants explore and affirm their identity, listen to other personal narratives and revise their idea of Britishness – simultaneously empowering themselves and anyone who relates. While the British media imposes vilifying and dehumanising characteristics on asylum seekers, refugees and British ethnic minorities, Britishness is a long-awaited exercise of self-determination and authenticity.
The film exposes the socially constructed borders between British-born white privileged people, claiming to be natives, and those portrayed as illegal or irreconcilably different. This “othering” is a tool used to justify the power of the UK government to deny human rights, detain and deport, which encourages the general public to discriminate and commit hate crimes. Addressing the Windrush scandal, it examines the Home Office’s intention to construct a “hostile environment”, detain and deport Black persons invited to rebuild Britain after World War II and who have contributed to its culture and economy for decades. It explores how such unjust racialised treatment impacts people’s sense of belonging. Concurrently, the interviews reveal beliefs in British values which contradict the current realities but which create space in the imagination for future possibilities. The soundtrack and poetry performances are useful in providing a socio-political context for individual narratives, validating diverse experiences and gluing them into a portrait of vulnerable self-expression, autonomy and collective power. The young voices featured in the documentary provide new contributions to regressive debates about British values which frequently exclude young people.
Unexpectedly, watching others talk about their identity made me consider my own and motivated me to reflect on my notions of Britishness. In the documentary, Danae Wellington summarises a group conversation as “not wanting to assign yourself to something that doesn’t accept you”. This statement stuck with me as it shed light on my decision to not apply for British citizenship, although eligible. Additionally, I learned to appreciate that, although “othered”, some people choose to reclaim Britishness or use their notion of national identity to empower themselves.
By presenting counterculture perspectives, Britishness expanded my definition of British culture as to include the experiences and celebrations of Black, Asian and other minority ethnic people living in the UK – with or without British passports. I understood that it is pointless to compare Britons to Romanians as it is impossible to bulk or homogenise the experiences of all people living in a country. I now feel that it is possible to belong to the Sheffield community portrayed onscreen, without having to embrace a blood-stained national identity.
Britishness is showing at Showroom Workstation on Thurs Nov 21, 6pm. Tickets and more info here.
