Welcome II the Terrordome
Ngozi Onwurah’s radically ahead-of-its-time dystopian sci-fi film Welcome II the Terrordome—the first theatrically distributed British feature by a Black woman—furiously evokes a near future in which Black people are segregated within a slum called the Terrordome, where simmering violence and anger threaten to boil over in the wake of a young boy’s murder. Named after an incendiary single by Public Enemy, the film uses its rap soundtrack to both comment on and drive its narrative, part of a sensibility in which American, British, and African cultures collide and the past, present, and future collapse. In this prescient work, Onwurah builds a visionary, Afrofuturist cosmology that connects the history of slavery to modern-day systemic racial brutality.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 2K digital restoration, supervised and approved by cinematographer Alwin H. Küchler, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- New audio commentary featuring Küchler, director Ngozi Onwurah, and Criterion curatorial director Ashley Clark
- Meet the Filmmakers: Ngozi Onwurah, a Criterion Channel original interview
- Three short films by Onwurah—Coffee Coloured Children (1988), And Still I Rise (1993), and Hang Time (2001)—with a new introduction by the director
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by poet and critic Kadish Morris
New cover by Ngabo “El’Cesart” Desire Cesar
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 2K digital restoration, supervised and approved by cinematographer Alwin H. Küchler, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- New audio commentary featuring Küchler, director Ngozi Onwurah, and Criterion curatorial director Ashley Clark
- Meet the Filmmakers: Ngozi Onwurah, a Criterion Channel original interview
- Three short films by Onwurah—Coffee Coloured Children (1988), And Still I Rise (1993), and Hang Time (2001)—with a new introduction by the director
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by poet and critic Kadish Morris
New cover by Ngabo “El’Cesart” Desire Cesar
Cast
- Suzette Llewellyn
- Anjela McBride/Ibo woman 1
- Saffron Burrows
- Jodie
- Felix Joseph
- Black Rad/Ibo leader
- Valentine Nonyela
- Spike McBride/Ibo man 1
- Ben Wynter
- Hector/Ibo boy
- Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre
- Chrissie/Ibo woman 2
- Jason Traynor
- Jason/Assistant overseer
- Brian Bovell
- Officer Bovell/Slave hand
- Cynthia Powell
- Rosa Parkson
- Natasha Romulus
- Tasha/Ibo girl
- Marica Myrie
- Nadine Parkson
- Olu Taiwo
- Red Gang leader/Ibo man 2
Credits
- Director
- Ngozi Onwurah
- Written by
- Ngozi Onwurah
- Producer
- Simon Onwurah
- Coproducer
- Valentine Nonyela
- Coproducer
- Dingi Ntuli
- Coproducer
- Gillian Hazel
- Cinematographer
- Alwin H. Küchler
- Editor
- Liz Webber
- Production designer
- Lindi Pankiv
- Production designer
- Miraphora Mina
- Original music score
- John Murphy
- Original music score
- David A. Hughes
- Original music score
- Black Radical MKII
- Line producer
- Joel Phiri
- Production manager
- Sarah Carr
- Sound designer
- Colin Ritchie
- Sound designer
- Alan Spelling
Trailer for Welcome II the Terrordome
