Suffragette (2015) directed by Sarah Gavron

This is an important film that should be compulsory viewing in all schools and by all parliamentarians to reduce ignorance about why feminism matters. A laundry worker in London's East End, Maud Watts stumbles into suffragism almost by accident. It is 1912 and women have few rights, not least the right to vote. Life is harsh for working men and even harsher for working women. Maud's dawning realisation of her powerlessness and her sacrifices in the fight for better are movingly depicted. Winning votes for women would be a step towards women gaining control over their own lives; 50 years of politely requesting change has got them nowhere and the Women’s Social and Political Union decides it’s time to get militant. The entrenched powers that be feel the threat and clamp down hard, treating activist women like terrorists and enlisting the media in a conspiracy to ignore them and their cause. Maud and her colleagues resort to increasingly desperate tactics to gain attention in a bid to change the world for their children’s sakes, culminating in a stunt that cannot be ignored. Even people familiar with the history of British suffragettes may be shocked and disturbed by the visual representation of their brutal treatment by authorities. Carey Mulligan commands the screen as usual as Maud and is ably supported by Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Marie Duff. The film does not pretend to be anything other than political and makes a very powerful point at the end with a scroll down timeline of when women achieved the vote around the world.