In 1912 London, a young working mother is galvanized into radical political activism supporting the right for women to vote, and is willing to meet violence with violence to achieve this end.
A drama that tracks the story of the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement, women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with an increasingly brutal State. These women were not primarily from the genteel educated classes, they were working women who had seen peaceful protest achieve nothing. Radicalized and turning to violence as the only route to change, they were willing to lose everything in their fight for equality--their jobs, their homes, their children, and their lives. Maud was one such foot soldier. The story of her fight for dignity is as gripping and visceral as any thriller, it is also heartbreaking and inspirational.—Production
Suffragette (2015) is a Directoral collaboration between Sarah Gavron (Brick Lane) and writer Abi Morgan (Iron Lady), funded by the British Film Institute. The Historical drama, set in London follows the early members of the Women's Social and Political Union and the story of their radicalisation from peaceful protesters to law breakers. The film documents WSPU's secret meetings to discuss tactics when protests and parliamentary evidence fail to win women the vote. After further mistreatment by employers, police and political lies the suffragettes decide to increase their activism with civil disobedience causing damage to Oxford Street windows, postboxes, churches and politicians homes. Police surveilllance and arrests lead to the suffragette's imprisonment and hunger strikes. The film's characters are Laundry workers, Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan) and Violet Miller (Ann Marie Duff), Shopkeeper Edith Ellyn (Helena Bonham Carter), Gentry Mrs Haughton (Romola Garai) and WSPU founder Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep). Mrs Withers and Emily Davison's activism is included in the script and their struggle to gain the vote acknowledged. The Director also includes the suffragettes husbands struggle to support their wives activism, Mr Watts ( Ben Wishaw), Mr Ellyn (Finbar Lynch) and Mr Haughton (Somuel West).
