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
- Scotland’s first Stained Glass museum to be opened in lasting tribute to the works of Alf Webster
- Unveiling Nelson Mandela Statue in Glasgow
- Sleepy Hollow Screening at Arlington Baths
- Water Here, Water There
- Turn A Different Corner at Cottiers
- Giant Bubble Show at Cottiers
- Music Night with Freedom From Torture and H4TH
- Woodlands Anti-Racist Film Club – Dreamers (2025)
- The Old Oak, Screening Maryhill Burgh Halls
- “Murder, murder, polis, three stairs up!” An Evening in Taggart’s Glasgow
- Take 2: Flushed Away at GFT
- Carlton Jug Band – Avant Garde
- Author Talk With Ian Rankin
- Caroline Walker In Conversation at The Hunterian
- Anti-Racist Community Library – Woodlands Community Black History Month 2026
- CRER Black History Walking Tour – Black History Month October 2026
- Black History Month October 2026
- Specialist Tour | Black History Month: African Women, Myth and Material Memory
- Best Shot: How to Get Published with Sheila Wakefield
- Rip it Up at GFT