This is England

Amanda Palmer with Andrew Shim and Stephen Graham

As 2007 commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Falklands war, an acclaimed British director
releases his take on how the legacy of former prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, shaped a whole cultural movement. 

 

This is England is Meadows’ semi-autobiography, but is also a harrowing tale of how racism became embedded in skinhead culture.

 

The film is set in 1983 North England, rife with unemployment and loss of life from the Falklands war.

 

Twelve-year-old Sean, sick of being bullied about his clothes and the death of his father in the Falklands, befriends a colourful gang of skinhead punks on the way home from school.

 

In the days when to be a skinhead meant Doc Martens, braces, Ska music and anarchic antics, the gang is a mixed bunch of likeable misfits. But before long, hardened former gang-leader Combo (Stephen Graham) returns from a three-year stint in prison, inflamed by the state of Thatcher’s Britain, he channels his bitterness into racism and a call for violence.

 

Amanda Palmer is joined by actors Stephen Graham and Andrew Shim in our Q&A at the Everyman Cinema Club, where Stephen reveals how having a Jamaican grandfather helped him explore the rise of racism in Combo, and Andrew Shim, having played the lead in Shane Meadows’ earlier film A Room for Romeo Brass, tells us how Meadows’ methods create his acclaimed style of realism.

 

 

Enlightened by Fire

While the Falklands war fuelled discontent in the UK, in Argentina it caused devastation, leaving 931 dead and the group of islands still under British control. 

 

A new film, Enlightened by Fire, based on the memoirs of a 19-year-old Argentinean conscript, tackles the subject and has fast become Argentina’s most successful film ever. 

 

 

Laura Linney stars in Jindabyne

Australian director Ray Lawrence, whose films include dark drama, Lantana, is best known for a fascination with torn communities and broken relationships.

 

His latest film, Jindabyne, is a disturbing tale of a small town facing questions of moral responsibility when a group of fishermen discover the dead body of a girl, and do nothing until the end of their three day trip. 

 

In an interview with Ray Lawrence, Amanda Palmer asks the director why breaking relationships and community unease form the main focus of his movies. 

 

 

Amos Gitai

Israeli director Amos Gitai has in the past caused controversy back home with left-wing depictions of the Arab-Israeli conflict. 

 

In his latest film, Disengagement, the 2005 Israeli withdrawal from Gaza settlements comes under scrutiny, when a French woman(Juliette Binoche) is reunited with her estranged daughter just before the army begins to move the settlers out. 

 

FPS goes behind the scenes to talk to Gitai about the personal experiences which inspired his latest film.

 

 

 

 

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