Burning an Illusion, Glasgow Film Theatre
22 – 25 August, 2022
Pat Williams, played by the award-winning Cassie McFarlane, is a London girl with a caring family, her own flat and a job that she enjoys, who looks forward to settling down to a comfortable married life. Her dream is shattered when she meets Del (Victor Romero), a charming but vaguely discontented toolmaker, who soon moves in and then loses his job causing them both to challenge their assumptions about each other and their aspirations.
Menelik Shabazz’s pioneering first feature, shot around the communities of Notting Hill and Ladbroke Grove, marked a coming-of-age for Black British cinema. A love story that traces the emotional and political growth of a young Black couple in Thatcher’s London, it was the first British film to give a central voice to a Black woman, charting her journey to emotional maturity, emancipation and political awakening.
(1981)
GFT, 12 Rose Street, Glasgow G3 6RB

This section: Cinema, What's On Glasgow West End: cinema, clubs, theatre, music, events, festivals, community and more
Related Pages
- The Girls We Want at GFT
- Take 2: Stardust at GFT
- Pillion at GFT
- Christmas Concert Vocal Dynamics
- Paula Ryans Images of the Winter Gardens 2018
- Scottish Carol Service with Hue and Cry, Nathan Evans and The Saint PHNX Band
- A Line of Water – Scottish Writers Centre
- St Andrew’s Day Ceilidh in Victoria Park
- West Dunbartonshire Biodiversity Team – improving local green spaces
- On Falling, Glasgow Film Festival 2025 review by Pat Byrne
- Partick Film Festival Short Film Showcase
- The Snow Queen – Golden Friendships Panto
- Christmas Lights Switch On Knightswood Cross Glasgow
- Welcoming New Scots To The Wyndford
- Liz MacWhirter – Creative Conversations
- Keelie Folk Club
- tell it slant at Locavore
- Take 2: Savages
- The Cure: The Show of a Lost World
- Fiume o Morel at GFT