How does it feel to have someone whom you hold close to your heart snatched away only to be brutally murdered? How does it feel to think of the pain that he must have possibly endured while being shot and struggling for life? How does life feel after he is gone, leaving behind an irrevocable vacuum, reminding you every day that life will never be the same again?
Yance Ford’s ‘Strong Island’ has to be one of the most heartbreaking documentaries that I have seen, where in the director unravels “the April 1992 murder of her brother William, a 24-year-old African-American teacher in New York, who was killed by Mark P. Reilly, a 19-year-old white chop shop mechanic.”
In many ways ‘Strong Island’ is a powerful, terrifying indictment of what it is like to have someone and then lose him forever, and living with a sense of unfulfilled redemption that could have at least brought justice to the departed one. This is a film that shakes you up like never before, and leaves you utterly aghast at how horrifying life could turn overnight.
Verdict: Good