ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
Justice for the miners
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends a compassionate and angry portrait of Orgreave that demonstrates, with evidence, the illegal agenda of the Thatcher government
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews I Am Martin Parr, September Says, The Monkey, and The Gorge
RITA DI SANTO applauds a touching and witty opener that touches a hot topic in Germany: the future of the immigrant population
SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
PAUL FOLEY recommends an extraordinary double bill that packs a punch and leaves you reeling
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a play about AI that results in a deadening disconnect for its audience
SIMON PARSONS applauds an insightful state-of-the-nation play that explores the growing class divide in South Africa
Strike: An Uncivil War (15)
Directed by Daniel Gordon
JUST days after the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Orgreave, the most violent confrontation between miners and police during the 1984-85 miners’ strike, comes a hard-hitting documentary which sheds new light on the Thatcher government’s involvement in both.
On June 18 1984 thousands of miners picketing the Orgreave coking plant near Sheffield were confronted by around 6,000 police, many armed with short shields and batons and others on horseback, who charged the miners, brutally beating them up.
The official narrative was that the police had been pelted with a non-stop barrage of missiles by the pickets before taking action. The chilling film footage shot by the media and the police themselves demonstrate that this was a flagrant lie.
More from this author
The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
A landmark work of gay ethnography, an avant-garde fusion of folk and modernity, and a chance comment in a great interview
ANGUS REID applauds the inventive stagecraft with which the Lyceum serve up Stevenson’s classic, but misses the deeper themes
Similar stories
ANGUS REID speaks to Daniel Gordon about his new film Strike - an uncivil war
The 40th anniversary of the 1984-5 miners’ strike will bring renewed demands for an inquiry into the brutal police attack on miners at Orgreave in South Yorkshire. PETER LAZENBY reports
CHRIS KITCHEN, general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, reminds us that the defining industrial battle of the last century isn’t over until there is full justice for Orgreave's victims — and for miners’ pensions