Story

Logline

For six days in 1990, the people of Trinidad and Tobago watch in fear and disbelief as the single most deadly event in the modern history of the island unfolds – an attempted coup by a small group of armed radicals led by Yasin Abu Bakr. ‘Six days in 1990’ exposes how the cult of personality emboldened by impunity leads to a misguided and deadly attempt to create a new world order.

Synopsis

It’s the early 1980s, a time when some of the Caribbean’s political leaders are embracing the ideals of Black Power and socialism. In the oil rich nation of Trinidad and Tobago, the dream of building a plural society seems to be advancing, yet corruption is rife, there is a crack cocaine epidemic, and a growing chasm between the haves and have-nots. Meanwhile, with visions of utopia, a group of black muslims is building a spiritual commune on the outskirts of the capital city, Port of Spain. On the face of it, the Jamaat Al Muslimeen, seems benign enough – families with small children live and go to school on the grounds of their mosque; there are daily calls to prayer and the Muslimeen have undertaken the pastorale care of disaffected young men from the surrounding area.

But on the afternoon of July 27th, 1990, an explosion at the Police Headquarters in Port of Spain sets in motion six days of terror that shakes the population of this tropical island, upending life as it was known. Trinidad and Tobago still reels from the trauma.

Set on taking control of the country, members of the Jamaat Al Muslimeen, led by the cult-like figure Yasin Abu Bakr – a former police officer – raid the Parliament, bomb the police headquarters, commandeer the national television station, kill an unknown number of people and take numerous hostages – including prime minister, ANR Robinson and much of his Cabinet. The resulting damage to the city from looting and fires is estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. It remains the only Islamic insurrection to have happened in the Western hemisphere. 

With extensive use of archival newsreel and eye witness accounts, woven together with a haunting soundtrack, director Mariel Brown immerses audiences in the drama of those six days through the eyes of those held at gunpoint and those that wielded the guns, and illuminates the trauma that remains undiluted by these many years. 

No convictions follow.

Thirty five years on, after numerous court cases and a public Commission of Enquiry, many questions still remain unanswered: how could this have happened? When did Bakr’s vision of utopia turn so violent? What did his followers think they were doing? And was this his endgame all along?

Ultimately, ‘Six days in 1990’ poses a wider and timely question about the fragility of democracy and the cult of personality.

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