An American tragedy

“FRUITVALE STATION” depicts the final 24 hours in the life of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old black man who was shot in the back by a policeman in the San Francisco Bay area on New Year’s Day in 2009. Written and directed by Ryan Coogler, a young film-maker from Oakland, Grant’s home town, this poignant debut film won the top prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Its release in select American cinemas is timely, coming a day before the trial over the shooting of Trayvon Martin, another unarmed black youth, reached its controversial verdict: the acquittal of his armed assailant.

Oscar Grant’s death was captured on the mobile phones of outraged bystanders. Mr Coogler’s film opens with one of these harrowing amateur videos, which shows him lying face down before he was shot. Flash back 24 hours earlier to Oscar (Michael B. Jordan) being kicked out of bed by his girlfriend Sophina (Melonie Diaz) for an infidelity he swears is behind him. Their daughter is the heart of their shaky relationship. It is New Year’s Eve, and Oscar spends the day preparing for the birthday of his mother (played by Octavia Spencer, an Academy Award-winning actress who also helped produce the film). Then he and his girlfriend will go into San Francisco with friends to see the fireworks. Oscar’s mother suggests they take the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART).

“Fruitvale Station” makes it plain that for young, black men in America, racial profiling can be deadly. But the reason to make a film that begins and ends with the hero’s death is to look at his life sub specie aeternitatis—from the perspective of eternity. Mr Coogler shot this film where it all happened, including the fatal transit stop. Trains passing in the distance are fraught with destiny. Seemingly trivial events of Oscar’s day—like his mother’s sensible advice to take the train—are stalked by tragic irony. A pit bull hit by a car is left to die.

This makes Oscar’s last hours with his family especially vivid. It also darkens the carnival mood in the city and on the train back to Oakland. Mr Jordan brings Oscar to life as a reformed rogue with a short fuse and a big heart, struggling to extricate himself from the mistakes of his past. After the grim final act, “Fruitvale Station” closes with documentary footage of a memorial rally for its hero—a moment made more powerful for the way this film travels to places where documentaries cannot go.

Correction: Oscar Grant was not shot in the back by a policeman in San Francisco, as we first stated. In fact he was killed in neighbouring Oakland. Sorry.