SUFFRAGETTE Star Carey Mulligan Talks About Film, Women’s Rights

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By Cate Marquis

The film SUFFRAGETTE focuses on women’s fight for the vote in early 20th century Britain. While that fight was led by Emmeline Pankhurst, played by Meryl Streep, who was a member of the upper class, the film really focuses on an ordinary working woman who risked all for this right, a role played by Carey Mulligan.

Mulligan recently spoke by phone with a group of journalists about the film, her role and the fight for women’s rights nearly a century on. All interview questions have been pooled and the interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Movie Geeks: “It takes a lot of courage for Maude (Mulligan’s character) to become so invested in the suffragette movement considering she goes from a housewife to, essentially, a kind of rebel. What was it like portraying that part?”

Carey Mulligan: “That was the sort of challenge of the film to me, and the thing I was most excited about in taking the role on because she starts the film as such an ordinary woman. And it’s through this journey, through meting these women that she becomes extraordinary. I really wanted to try and make that feel real and believable. And it’s a really big shift that she makes in a lot of her personality. That was sort of the hardest thing about it. But it was based on accounts of lots of women at that time. And I think it was something that happened to a lot of working class women especially. They have the most to lose, and they made the biggest sacrifices. And I think people reached a breaking point in their lives and it was at this time that a lot of these women realized that they needed to fight for this cause and they didn’t have a choice anymore in their lives. I read a lot really. And I read a lot of accounts of women who were like Maude and they all, kind of, fed into the character.”

MG: “Could you speak a little bit about the irony of doing a press for a film about the early fight for women’s right to vote when there’s a kind of discussion [now] about the discrepancy of salaries between men and women in the film industry?”

CM: “Yes. I think a lot of the issues in the film are hugely relevant now. One of them is definitely the pay gap. In a lot of ways, there are lots of things that we haven’t improved on really in 100 years. And that’s definitely a big part of the conversation now especially in my industry. And I think that’s a great conversation to be having because it is unfair and it has always been unfair.

But I think only in the – we talk about it in the film industry because people look to the film industry and listen to a lot of things that actors naturally just say. And I think we can use that to have a wider impact on society because it shouldn’t be a self-serving conversation; it should be about the wider society and how women are treated in the work place and the pay gap in general.

But there are tons of other issues in the film that we’re still struggling with today for women. I think access to education is a big one of those. And women’s representation in Parliament. And sexual violence and treatment in the work place.

So it’s been really good, actually, doing a press junket around this film because there’s so many relevant issues for today. It’s interesting to talk about those. It’s been a really refreshing experience to do press on this film.”

MG: “It’s such a strong ensemble of women in this film. And you have Meryl Streep, Helena Bonham Carter and yourself. What kind of discussions did you guys maybe on set or previous to doing the film about how you were going to convey that to the audience, which you did wonderfully?”

CM: “Oh, thank you. Well, we were lucky in that we all got on brilliantly. We had a helpful time. So we had a couple of weeks before we started the filming of being together and spending time. And I think it was most important for my character and Helena’s character and Anne Marie [Duff]’s character to really have that camaraderie on screen.

And we just got on so well. And loved working together and loved researching the film together and learning. And it was interesting because it was the first time, really, in history in England that the classes – we’re a very classist society in England – and this was the first time that the classes really mixed. And upper class women started talking to the middle class and lower class women and sharing ideas. And it really brought women together in a great way.

And I think that was something that [director] Sarah [Gavron] certainly wanted to show in the film with Helena’s character is educated and has money and she is spending time with Maude who is not really educated and is from a very different class than her and to show what those things happening was. That was a big part of the movement. So I’m really happy that it came across well in the film.”

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MG: “Obviously there are a lot of extremely harrowing scenes in the film, especially for your character. And I wanted to ask which scene was the most challenging for you to film personally?”

CM: “I think probably the adoption scene where my son is taken away because it’s one of the – it was a sort of big, difficult scene in the script that I knew was going to be hard to shoot. And there were multiple people in the [scene]. And also we were filming with a little boy. He was a really amazing little kid. And he was really, really invested emotionally. And even in the roundtable when we read the script before we started filming, we found that scene really emotional. And we’re crying. So we knew that when we came to filming it we didn’t want to make him do it 100 times. And so we shot him first and then shot him for the last of it and I did most of the scene with his stand-in. So it was challenging from that respect because it was sort of stretching out my son with a different – and having to shoot it over and over and over again.

It was something quite emotionally challenging. You kind of worry that at a certain point the tears are going to run out and you’re going to have to start faking it. So it was one of those days that was quite intense. And everyone has to stay quite focused for the whole thing and try to stay in the scene. But, yes; I think that was probably the most tricky.”

MG: “How you feel the film would have been different had the director been a man?”

CM: “Oh, that’s a good question. No one’s asked me that. Well, I can’t really say that the experience was one way or another because it was directed by a woman. I do feel that as a group of women, we felt very excited to be the ones who are finally going to get to tell the story because it’s such a huge part of our history that’s been so completely neglected. And so to get to be the ones to it, I think as a group of women we felt very excited and inspired by that. And, honestly, I don’t think it would have been made by a man. I don’t think the film was going to get made by a group of men. I think it was always going to take this group of really tenacious women to get it made. And so it’s impossible to imagine I think. And the experience is so unique; and it shouldn’t be a unique experience for a large group of women, but it was. And Sarah just led it all in the most brilliant, thoughtful way.

It was such a wonderful experience. But I can’t say that it was better or worse for being directed by a woman; but it was definitely one of my most enjoyable experiences, and one of the most exciting films I’ve been a part of.”

MG: “A lot of this is about telling the history of these women and especially a movement that maybe hasn’t been well represented. So I think my question is what did you in your performance feel that you owed to the legacy of these women? What did you want – what did you want your performance to say about them?”

CM: “I think that it is sort of salute to them and a tribute to them. And obviously we want their story to be told because there is something that has been written out of our history books in England. I think we wanted to show that courage and that conviction. This is largely a lot of women who had everything to lose. And I think there was a huge amount of sacrifice made. At that time to make that choice to be a suffragette was incredibly dangerous and risky and could ruin you. And they stood behind it and endured everything that you see in the film and more because they felt so strongly that they needed to do this and not really for themselves but for their future, for the future generations.

And I think that kind of conviction for their beliefs and doing things for the betterment of society, I think that (inaudible) was completely, in a way, really unselfish what they did because the change that would be affected wasn’t really going to affect their lives. But they knew that it would affect the lives of future generations. So there’s something very unselfish about that.”

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MG: “The very end of the film kind of ends without closure for Maude. We know what happens in regards to the women’s suffrage. But we don’t exactly know what happened with these characters. In your mind, if the story were to continue, how would Maude’s life continue?”

CM: “I imagine that she takes on some sort of role within the movement. But she would go on to have some sort of position in the WSPU and have some sort of authority. I think that’s what she’s building to with the confidence she has gained and the friends that she has made. I think she’s going to have a more powerful position within the movement. That’s sort of where I see her going. And I’ve seen her – there was actually originally a scene where she’s reunited with her son much later in life. And we never shot that and we discussed it and decided that it wasn’t the right thing to do. But I do think that she meets her son again at some point in her life.

So I think that she goes on to have some sort of life, some real position within the movement from the looks. Yes. Moves away from the life that she had before and becomes someone that people look up to.”

SUFFRAGETTE is in theaters now.

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SUFFRAGETTE – The Review

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By Cate Marquis

In the years just before World War I at the start of the 20th century, British women had been campaigning peacefully for the right to vote for about 50 years, to no avail. When aristocrat Emmeline Pankhurst, along with her daughters, joined this struggle and formed the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), all that changed. The label “suffragettes” originated as an insult but the WSPU embraced the term as they took to the streets in violent protest to force government to give women the vote.

This nearly-forgotten struggle is the subject of SUFFRAGETTE. The bold, emotionally-raw and worthy drama focuses more narrowly on a particular moment in that movement for women’s suffrage in Britain. While Emmeline Pankhurst, played by Meryl Streep, is a character in this story, the real focus of SUFFRAGETTE is on some of her followers, “foot soldiers” in this fight – Maud (Carey Mulligan), a poor uneducated mother working in a factory laundry, Edith (Helena Bonham-Carter), a college-educated pharmacist/physician, and Maud’s radical co-worker Violet (Anne-Marie Duff). Ben Whishaw plays Maud’s husband Sonny and Brendon Gleeson plays Inspector Arthur Steed, tasked with stopping the suffragettes’ violent attacks.

“Suffrage” is such an odd word, sounding like suffering when it actually means the right to vote. There was plenty of suffering involved in this struggle, especially by the poor women who lacked the resources and connections that Pankhurst had. Inspired by real events, this story takes place in a pivotal historical moment, when the fight for women’s rights coincided in Britain with challenges to class divisions, the early labor movement and opposition to the coming war, the ultimate war of choice that transformed both Europe and warfare.

Directed by Sarah Gavron, written by Abi Morgan, and led by a top-notch female cast, SUFFRAGETTE is woman-power in action as well as being a gripping historical drama. Not surprisingly, the film has a decided pro-women’s rights slant. The very personal viewpoint from which it is told might cause the film to resonate more with women than men. While Maud, Edith and Violet are fictional, they are drawn from real people and real events are depicted in the film. The film also illustrates the class divide of the era, something Pankhurst’s organization crossed.

The acting is superb, particularly Mulligan as the central character, but all the cast are good. Mulligan gives a moving, touching performance as a woman gradually drawn into the fight by circumstances of her life. In her few scenes, Streep captures the energetic and larger-than-life impression Pankhurst must have given her followers. Bonham-Carter gives a strong performance, damping down her quirky-character style to play more restrained character as brainy Edith.

The attention to period detail adds realism, the photography is lavish and Gavron’s firm direction paired with Morgan’s human-focused script makes this a moving, involving drama.

If this worthy film has a flaw, it is that the focus is too narrow, and that it does not give a big enough picture of the fight for voting rights for women, or the political context in which it took place as war loomed and workers were organizing for rights. Instead, it portrays the hardships and  restrictions confronting ordinary women, and the personal costs they faced for their activism. At the time, women were expected to stay home and care for children but, for poor women, this was rarely an option. Maud works along side her husband (Ben Whishaw), raising their son George (Adam Michael Dodd) in a cramped apartment. The conditions in the factory are appalling, hours are long, and girls as young as nine work under bullying boss Mr. Taylor (Geoff Bell). Edith is better educated than her supportive husband but she can only treat her patients under his authority as the male owner of a family pharmacy.

As the film shows, these women organized protest marches, petitioned Parliament, and even bombed mailboxes and broke shop windows. Many were jailed repeatedly, including Pankhurst, and the government responded to hunger strikes with brutal force-feeding. Emily Wilding Davison (Natalie Press) was a real person, as was the climatic event shown near the film’s end, and its pivotal role in the women’s votes movement.

The suffragettes’ actions contrasted with how their formal Edwardian dress, particularly the fashionable upper classes, appear to our modern eyes. By focusing on the more informally dressed working class women, it is easier to connect emotionally with the characters. One of the film’s strengths is its willingness to show men who supported this cause as well as those who opposed it. However, one of the film’s most startling moments comes at the very end, as a list of the dates when women won the vote in various country is a shocking reminder of how much remains to be done.

The story has links to the present, as women are still fighting for equal pay nearly a century later, a topic particularly being talked about in the film industry now. SUFFRAGETTE is a moving historical drama told from a human level, a worthy film that hopefully will prompt interest in this overlooked history, and one likely to garner some Oscar nods come awards season.

OVERALL RATING: 4 OUT OF 5 STARS

SUFFRAGETTE is playing in theaters now

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Watch The SUFFRAGETTE Discussion At The Academy With Director Sarah Gavron, Writer Abi Morgan And Producer Alison Owen

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Credit: Steffan Hill/Focus Features

After winning the Best Actress Oscar at the 84th Academy Awards for her portrayal as Margaret Thatcher in THE IRON LADY, Meryl Streep came backstage for the standard Q&A with the press. As she stood there with her Oscar statuette, I asked her:

Q. For young girls today, young women watching the Oscars, what advice would you give to them if they are thinking about going into filmmaking or acting?
A. Or anything.

Q. Or anything?
A. Or anything.  Never give up.  Don’t give up, don’t give up.  I mean, many girls around the world live in circumstances that are unimaginably difficult.  And it’s not, you know, show business is a golf game compared to the way most kids grow up in the world.  But I would say never give up.

Inspired by true events, SUFFRAGETTE movingly explores the passion and heartbreak of those who risked all they had for women’s right to vote – their jobs, their homes, their children, and even their lives.

Academy Award nominees Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter, and three-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, lead the cast of the powerful drama about the fight for equality in early-20th-century Britain.

The stirring story centers on Maud, a working wife and mother who becomes an activist for the Suffragette cause alongside women from all walks of life.

Below is the SUFFRAGETTE discussion with director Sarah Gavron, writer Abi Morgan and producer Alison Owen on October 13, 2015 at The Academy.

Gavron says, “All of this happened 100 years ago. I was amazed that this extraordinary and powerful true story of ordinary women willing to sacrifice everything for the right to vote had never been told. There was a miniseries back in the 1970s titled Shoulder to Shoulder which made a generation of women more aware of this history – but, no feature film.”

When the BAFTA Award winner made her much-admired feature film directorial debut, 2007’s Brick Lane, she found kindred spirits in the project’s producers, Academy Award nominee Alison Owen and Faye Ward, and screenwriter Abi Morgan. Not long after, Owen remembers, “I was speaking with a friend, and I wondered why no one had ever made a movie about the Suffragettes. The Suffragette movement in the U.K. didn’t have the associations that the U.S movement did, closely allied – or perceived as being – with the Temperance movement. I realized that the subject to tackle was its being kick-ass, more like a guerrilla movement.”

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Director Sarah Gavron

Gavron marvels, “Suddenly we had a team of women filmmakers mobilizing, realizing that we were all drawn to, and being inspired by, what those women achieved. It was time for us to tell their untold story with all its excitement and contemporary resonance.”

“We knew there was a looming responsibility, but we all felt so strongly that it came naturally. It was imperative to us that our film would speak to a wide audience,” comments Ward, a Golden Globe Award nominee. “We also wanted to make sure that its relevance to today would overcome any sense of this being a story locked in the past.”

Ms. Streep concludes, “The full measure of our equality as human beings has yet to be gained across the world as well as here at home. I think it will shock people that this was London in 1912-1913, and how hard won the vote is. I don’t think any young woman who sees Suffragette can conscientiously sit out any election after seeing how people suffered to give her the right to decide her own future.”

SUFFRAGETTE opens in St. Louis on November 6. Take your sisters, your mothers, your daughters – go see this very important and inspirational film!

Visit the movie’s official site: suffragettethemovie.com

It’s Election Day – Watch The #HopeForOurDaughters Video For Sarah Gavron’s SUFFRAGETTE Movie

Photo by Brigitte Lacombe ©2015 Pathe Productions Limited. All Rights Reserved Back Row, Left to Right: Sarah Gavron (Director), Helen Pankhurst (Great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst), Laura Pankhurst (Great-great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst), Alison Owen (Producer). Front Row, Left to Right: Abi Morgan (Screenwriter), Anne-Marie Duff (Actor), Meryl Streep (Actor), Carey Mulligan (Actor), Helena Bonham Carter (Actor), Faye Ward (Producer).
©2015 Pathe Productions Limited. All Rights Reserved

The new film SUFFRAGETTE is playing in select cities and expands nationwide throughout November.

Make gender equality a reality in our lifetime. Take a photo and share your hope for future generations of women on Instagram with hashtag #HopeforourDaughters.

Visit FightsNotOver.com to learn more about how you can help make change happen today and for every post, $1 will be donated to Equality Now. Watch the #HopeForOurDaughters video.

This Election Day, remember your vote counts. Exercise your hard-won right to vote.

Academy Award nominees Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter, and three-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, lead the cast of a powerful drama about the women who were willing to lose everything in their fight for equality in early-20th-century Britain.

The stirring story centers on Maud (played by Carey Mulligan), a working wife and mother whose life is forever changed when she is secretly recruited to join the U.K.’s growing Suffragette movement. Galvanized by the outlaw fugitive Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep), Maud becomes an activist for the cause alongside women from all walks of life. When increasingly aggressive police action forces Maud and her dedicated fellow Suffragettes underground, they engage in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with the authorities, who are shocked as the women’s civil disobedience escalates and sparks debate across the nation.

Inspired by true events, SUFFRAGETTE is a moving drama exploring the passion and heartbreak of those who risked all they had for women’s right to vote – their jobs, their homes, their children, and even their lives.

Produced by Academy Award nominee Alison Owen and Golden Globe Award nominee Faye Ward, SUFFRAGETTE is directed by BAFTA Award winner Sarah Gavron from an original screenplay by Emmy Award winner Abi Morgan.

Visit the official site: www.suffragettethemovie.com

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Win Passes To The Advance Screening Of SUFFRAGETTE In St. Louis

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Inspired by true events, SUFFRAGETTE movingly explores the passion and heartbreak of those who risked all they had for women’s right to vote – their jobs, their homes, their children, and even their lives.

Academy Award nominees Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter, and three-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, lead the cast of the powerful drama about the fight for equality in early-20th-century Britain. The stirring story centers on Maud, a working wife and mother who becomes an activist for the Suffragette cause alongside women from all walks of life.

SUFFRAGETTE is directed by BAFTA Award winner Sarah Gavron and written by Emmy Award winner Abi Morgan. The score is from composer Alexandre Desplat.

The film opens in St. Louis on November 6th.

WAMG invites you to enter for a chance to win a pass (Good for 2) to the advance screening of SUFFRAGETTE on Tuesday, November 3 at 7PM in the St. Louis area.

We will contact the winners by email.

Answer the following:

  • What year did women in the US receive the right to vote?
  • What amendment to the US Constitution gave women the right to vote?
  • Who was the President when Congress passed the Amendment, officially giving women the right to vote?

TO ENTER, ADD YOUR NAME, ANSWERS AND EMAIL IN OUR COMMENTS SECTION BELOW.

OFFICIAL RULES:

1. YOU MUST BE IN THE ST. LOUIS AREA THE DAY OF THE SCREENING.

2. A pass does not guarantee a seat at a screening. Seating is on a first-come, first served basis. The theater is overbooked to assure a full house. The theater is not responsible for overbooking.

3. No purchase necessary.

The film is rated PG-13.

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SUFFRAGETTE Movie Honors 95th Anniversary Of Women’s Equality Day With New Poster

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Every daughter should know this history, every son write it on his own heart. – Meryl Streep

I come to ask you to help to win this fight. If we win it, this hardest of all fights, then, to be sure, in the future it is going to be made easier for women all over the world to win their fight when their time comes. – Emmeline Pankhurst (1913)

On August 26, 1920 the United States government accorded women the right to vote.

Each year, the President of the United States designates August 26 as Women’s Equality Day to commemorate this landmark decision.

In celebration of the 95th anniversary of the historic moment for equal rights, Focus Features has released the U.S. theatrical poster for SUFFRAGETTE.

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The moving and powerful SUFFRAGETTE shines a light on women who risked everything for the right to vote, in early-20th century Britain.

The cast includes Academy Award nominees Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter and three-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep.

The female filmmaking team includes producers Alison Owen (an Academy Award nominee) and Faye Ward (a Golden Globe Award nominee), Emmy Award-winning writer Abi Morgan, and BAFTA Award-winning director Sarah Gavron.

This video below from Focus Features commemorates Women’s Equality Day and the impact of Emmeline Pankhurst (played by Meryl Streep in the film).

The stirring story centers on Maud (played by Carey Mulligan), a working wife and mother whose life is forever changed when she is secretly recruited to join the U.K.’s growing suffragette movement. Galvanized by the outlaw fugitive Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep), Maud becomes an activist for the cause alongside women from all walks of life. When increasingly aggressive police action forces Maud and her dedicated fellow suffragettes underground, they engage in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with the authorities, who are shocked as the women’s civil disobedience escalates and sparks debate across the nation.

Inspired by true events, SUFFRAGETTE is a moving drama exploring the passion and heartbreak of those who risked all they had for women’s right to vote – their jobs, their homes, their children, and even their lives. The film also stars Brendan Gleeson, Anne-Marie Duff, Ben Whishaw, Romola Garai, and Natalie Press.

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Anne-Marie Duff remarks, “This is the time to tell the Suffragettes’ story; there are countries whose regimes diminish women, and countries where there is a terrifying preoccupation with external appearances rather than with women who are achievers.”

Helena Bonham Carter adds, “Around the world, there are still glass ceilings for women. This is a subject we must continue to talk about.”

Meryl Streep notes, “The full measure of our equality as human beings has yet to be gained across the world as well as here at home. I think it will shock people that this was London in 1912-1913, and how hard won the vote is. I don’t think any young woman who sees SUFFRAGETTE can conscientiously sit out any election after seeing how people suffered to give her the right to decide her own future.”

Carey Mulligan reflects, “There is a general apathy towards voting, especially among younger people, despite so many voices being heard online. So for them to see the dedication, hard work, determination, passion, and grief that went into achieving equality in a voting system is important.

SUFFRAGETTE is a universal story for today and about equality; the Suffragettes’ battle for change is still being fought, not only for women’s rights but for equality between races, between societies, between classes. Hopefully our film will inspire people to go out and do something to make the world a better place.”

With a moving score from Oscar winner Alexandre Desplat, SUFFRAGETTE opens on October 23rd in New York and Los Angeles – expanding across the country in the following weeks.

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Meryl Streep, Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter Are Rebels In New SUFFRAGETTE Poster

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Today is Emmeline Pankhurst Day in the U.K. Each year, this day pays tribute to the fight for women’s suffrage (the right to vote) and equal rights for women led by activist Emmeline Pankhurst.

Beginning in the early 20th century, the tireless work from Mrs. Pankhurst and the thousands of women she rallied as suffragettes had a ripple effect that reached across the globe, helping to eventually gain women equality in numerous other countries, including the U.S.

To celebrate the day, Focus Features has released the brand new SUFFRAGETTE poster of Ms. Streep, Ms. Mulligan, and Ms. Bonham Carter.

Academy Award nominees Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter, and three-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, lead the cast of a powerful drama about the women who were willing to lose everything in their fight for equality in early-20th-century Britain.

The stirring story centers on Maud (played by Carey Mulligan), a working wife and mother whose life is forever changed when she is secretly recruited to join the U.K.’s growing suffragette movement. Galvanized by the outlaw fugitive Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep), Maud becomes an activist for the cause alongside women from all walks of life. When increasingly aggressive police action forces Maud and her dedicated fellow suffragettes underground, they engage in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with the authorities, who are shocked as the women’s civil disobedience escalates and sparks debate across the nation.

Inspired by true events, SUFFRAGETTE is a moving drama exploring the passion and heartbreak of those who risked all they had for women’s right to vote – their jobs, their homes, their children, and even their lives. The film also stars Ben Whishaw, Anne-Marie Duff, Brendan Gleeson, Romola Garai, and Natalie Press.

SUFFRAGETTE is directed by BAFTA Award winner Sarah Gavron from an original screenplay by Emmy Award winner Abi Morgan.

The European premiere of SUFFRAGETTE will open the 59th BFI London Film Festival.

SUFFRAGETTE opens October 23rd in NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES – Expanding nationwide in the following weeks.

https://www.facebook.com/SuffragetteMovie

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Focus Features To Release SUFFRAGETTE Fall 2015 – Stars Meryl Streep, Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter

Photo by Brigitte Lacombe ©2015 Pathe Productions Limited. All Rights Reserved Back Row, Left to Right:  Sarah Gavron (Director), Helen Pankhurst (Great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst), Laura Pankhurst (Great-great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst), Alison Owen (Producer). Front Row, Left to Right:  Abi Morgan (Screenwriter), Anne-Marie Duff (Actor), Meryl Streep (Actor), Carey Mulligan (Actor), Helena Bonham Carter (Actor), Faye Ward (Producer).
Photo by Brigitte Lacombe
©2015 Pathe Productions Limited. All Rights Reserved
Back Row, Left to Right:
Sarah Gavron (Director), Helen Pankhurst (Great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst), Laura Pankhurst (Great-great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst), Alison Owen (Producer).
Front Row, Left to Right:
Abi Morgan (Screenwriter), Anne-Marie Duff (Actor), Meryl Streep (Actor), Carey Mulligan (Actor), Helena Bonham Carter (Actor), Faye Ward (Producer).

Focus Features has acquired North American distribution rights from Pathé to the drama SUFFRAGETTE, directed by BAFTA Award winner Sarah Gavron from a script written by Emmy Award winner Abi Morgan, for a Fall 2015 domestic release.

The cast of the U.K. film includes Academy Award nominees Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter, BAFTA Award winner Ben Whishaw, British Independent Film Award winner Anne-Marie Duff, Golden Globe Award nominee Brendan Gleeson, and three-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep.

SUFFRAGETTE is a moving drama that will empower all who are striving for equal rights in our own day and age. The stirring story, inspired by the early-20th-century campaign by the suffragettes for the right of women to vote, centers on Maud (played by Carey Mulligan), a working wife and mother who comes to realize that she must fight for her dignity both at home and in her workplace. Realizing that she is not alone, she becomes an activist alongside other brave women from all walks of life. The early efforts at resistance were passive but as the women faced increasingly aggressive police action, the suffragettes become galvanized – risking their very lives to ensure that women’s rights would be recognized and respected.

Focus has also acquired the distribution rights for Latin America, India, South Korea, and most of Eastern Europe including Russia; Universal Pictures International will release the film in those territories. Focus CEO Peter Schlessel made the announcement today.

Ruby Films’ Alison Owen, an Academy Award nominee as producer of Elizabeth, and Faye Ward are the producers of SUFFRAGETTE, which is directed by Sarah Gavron (Brick Lane) from a screenplay by Abi Morgan (The Iron Lady). The film’s executive producers are Cameron McCracken, Tessa Ross, Rose Garnett, Nik Bower, James Schamus, and Teresa Moneo.

SUFFRAGETTE is a Ruby Films production for Focus Features, Pathé, Film4, and the BFI in association with Ingenious Media and with the participation of Canal+ and Cine-Cinema.

Meryl Streep, who plays Emmeline Pankhurst in SUFFRAGETTE, commented: “Every daughter should know this history, every son write it on his own heart.”

Peter Schlessel, CEO of Focus Features, said, “Suffragette is a story that will resonate with men and women across the generations; it is about parents and children, courage and dedication, and making hard choices. Sarah, Abi, Alison and Faye are women who represent an amazing convergence of filmmaking talent. We’re proud to partner with Pathé to bring this powerful drama to audiences worldwide.”

The deal was negotiated by Focus Features’ Beth Lemberger, Executive Vice President, Business Affairs, and Lia Buman, President of Acquisitions, with Cameron McCracken, Managing Director, Pathé Productions, and Muriel Sauzay, Head of Sales, Pathé International.