Filmmaker Daniel Gordon follows his double BAFTA-winning, EMMY-nominated and critically acclaimed feature documentary, Hillsborough with this searing feature documentary. Strike: An Uncivil War tells the story of the Battle of Orgreave, the most violent confrontation between miners and police during the 1984/85 Miners’ Strike in Great Britain. Orgreave has taken on a kind of folkloric status for subsequent generations, and in Strike… it’s recounted by those who lived through it, contextualised through the history of the British mining union and a government that was hell-bent on breaking it. As well as interviews, the film makes use of archival footage from the Northeast Film Archive, the Yorkshire Film Archive, the NUM, as well as incredible footage recorded by a miner “who went to Orgreave on the day and filmed with a little VHS camcorder”. Strike: An Uncivil War is a powerful testimony to the seismic events that changed Britain’s socio-political landscape forever.
Cert. 15.
“A tough, valuable, forthright film.” ★★★★ Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“Has an importance which transcends party politics…touching and sad.” ★★★★ Mansel Stimpston, Film Review Daily
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