★★★★ “A tough, valuable, forthright film.”

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

★★★★★ “Crucial viewing for anyone interested in British politics and social history.”

Graham Fuller, The Arts Desk

★★★★ “Powerful and thorough.”

Amber Wilkinson, Eye For Film

★★★★★ “Outstanding.”

Maria Duarte, The Morning Star

★★★★ “Has an importance which transcends party politics… touching and sad.”

Mansel Stimpson, Film Review Daily

STRIKE: AN UNCIVIL WAR tells the story of the year-long Miners’ Strike of 1984/85 – the most violent and divisive industrial dispute that Britain has ever witnessed.

It pays particular focus to the Battle of Orgreave, which took place on 18th June 1984, the bloodiest day of the Strike. The media subsequently appeared to lay blame for the violence at the feet of the strikers. Daniel Gordon’s comprehensive documentary doesn’t just overturn this fabrication, it portrays what took place as planned action on the part of the Thatcher government, with the Prime Minister determined to seek redress for the National Union of Mineworkers’ victory over the Conservative government in the early 1970s and to forever break the Union’s role at the heart of British working-class society. Released on the 40th anniversary of the Battle, and featuring first-hand accounts and archive footage, this is a searing portrait of that most infamous of days. 

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: 

“Strike: An Uncivil War is a film I have been wanting to make for over a decade now. My mum grew up in a mining village in South Yorkshire, and I grew up very aware of the strength of that community. I turned 12 during the Strike and to see the destruction brought on by it was something I could only observe on television and through a child’s lens, but over the years I have always been determined to revisit this period and go beyond the lazy headlines and official narrative of the time. After making ‘Hillsborough’, I knew that ‘Strike’ and in particular The Battle of Orgreave was next. There are so many similarities with Hillsborough and Orgreave – the cover up, the shifting of blame by the government and other instruments of the state. What has shocked me though was discovering the level of planning. From the very top. A government hell bent on destroying its own people. A very uncivil war if you like. And it is scandalous to discover how far they were prepared to go, in a ‘democratic’ country such as Britain, with results that continue to have an impact to this day. I hope this film can continue to raise awareness and, in some way, shine a light on the justice denied.”