Black Actresses Are Carrying One Battle After Another

"Shakur was a legendary revolutionary with the Black Liberation Army who in May 1977 was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper in a shoot-out that left her wounded and another comrade dead. Two years later, Shakur, aided by other BLA members, escaped from prison and was granted political asylum in Cuba in 1984, where she resided until her death. During Barack Obama's presidency, she was added to the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list, and her bounty doubled to $2 million."

"The movie opens on the steely gaze of Perfidia as she canvasses an immigration holding facility along the U.S.-Mexico border. Perfidia is a leading member of the French 75, an incendiary far-left group whose raid on the facility and its fallout composes the first 30 or so minutes of the film. While the rest of the French 75 help the immigrants escape, Leonardo DiCaprio's bomb expert "Ghetto" Pat lights up the twilight sky as an announcement of their revolution and, more importantly, to impress Perfidia."

Assata Shakur was a Black Liberation Army revolutionary convicted in 1977 of killing a New Jersey state trooper, later escaping prison and receiving asylum in Cuba, and was placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list with a $2 million bounty. One Battle After Another features Teyana Taylor as Perfidia Beverly Hills, a French 75 member whose raid on an immigration holding facility catalyzes the film. The early sequence foregrounds political violence and spectacle, introduces Leonardo DiCaprio’s “Ghetto” Pat, and sets up Perfidia’s fixation on Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw. The film traces Perfidia’s romance, pregnancy, postpartum depression, psychosexual tensions, and the French 75’s collapse.

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