Suffragette

Director Sarah Gavron and writer Abi Morgan beat their feminist drum proudly as they bring to screen the fight for the female vote. Suffragette centres on a group of largely fictional women, although Meryl Streep appears as Emmeline Pankhurst. Beginning in London in 1912 during the escalating civil disobedience, we follow a wrung-out laundress (Carey Mulligan), her feisty colleague (Anne-Marie Duff) and the local ringleader (Helena Bonham Carter). The film illustrates the scale of their oppression, their hope that things could be different, and what forces they were up against. Eschewing the conventions of period drama, the movie benefits from fluid, naturalistic visuals and a respectfully sombre hue. It's rousing and heart-stopping, yet forgoes some brutality to reach a wide audience, with the fidgety camera relaying the fear and frenzy but masking the violence. There are real women's stories here that intersect too briefly but Suffragette is an inspiring introduction to a chapter of history that's been disgracefully ignored. It's a tale that remains woefully relevant and in the hands of these film-makers becomes, finally, unforgettable.