Acclaimed filmmaker Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep, My Brother's Wedding, To Sleep With Anger) focuses his unique directorial vision on a new genre for him, the policier/action film, creat­ing a powerful moral drama that loses none of its uncompromising anger for being his most mainstream work to date.

From a story by a true-life LAPD officer, The Glass Shield scrutinises the pitfalls of corruption and bigotry inherent in the close knit world of cops on a hyper-violent Los Angeles beat Young, over-eager rookie J.). is the first African-American to be assigned to an intolerant subur­ban station with a growing reputation for excessive force and suspect arrest procedures. His desire to be accepted by the pack sets him on a tragic personal journey from being part of the solution to part of the problem.

Refusing to sacrifice honest, intelligent scruti­ny for violent thrills, Burnett's examination of racism and identity through vivid mugshots of a social and legal system bloated with corruption, is both a savage indictment and a taut thinking person's thriller.