Special event One night only
IREKE: RISE OF THE MAROONS (18)
Friday 25th July 25 - 8.30pm
(Contains themes and language some may find offensive)
Written & Directed by Gbolahan Peter Macjob
Fresh off its world market premiere at Cannes 2025 (Marché du Film), IREKE is a powerful, Yoruba-language historical drama directed by Emmy-nominated BBC journalist Gbolahan Peter Macjob. The film draws on Yoruba oral tradition and historical events to explore the generational trauma of the transatlantic slave trade and its diasporic impact — from Nigeria to the Caribbean, and on to Britain.
In 17th-century West Africa, a young prince named Atanda is betrayed by his uncle (Kolawole Ajeyemi), who murders the king - Atanda's father (Antar Laniyan) - with the aid of British soldiers and sells the boy into slavery to claim the throne of Ile Wura.
Torn from his homeland and thrust into the brutal labour of a Jamaican sugarcane plantation, Atanda (Tobi Bakre) is forced to endure unimaginable hardship under the rule of the ruthless Master Gerard (Demetri Turin). Amid the violence, he finds forbidden love with Adunni (Atlanta Bridget Johnson), a mixed-heritage house slave whose strength and defiance make her a constant target of Lady Catherine (Alex Franklyn), the plantation owner's bitter and jealous wife.
When Adunni is accused of witchcraft in a scheme fueled by Catherine and her cunning maidservant Toro (Genevieve Edwin), the fragile order of the plantation shatters. As unrest turns to open rebellion, Atanda is drawn into the world of the Maroons, a rebel society of escaped slaves led by a mysterious and powerful priestess (Faithia Williams Balogun), whose vision of liberation forces him to confront his past - and his destiny.