A powerful drama about the women who were willing to lose everything in their fight for equality in early-20th-century Britain.
Maud (Mulligan), is 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 (Streep), Maud becomes an activist for the cause. 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.
“This does not mean that the film depicts all men as monsters, though Maud’s supervisor (Geoff Bell) is a fine portrait of male depravity. But “Suffragette” also avoids the all-too-common tactics of placing a sympathetic member of the oppressor class at the center of the drama or making it all about the awakening of a man’s conscience. Instead, it shows the limits of solidarity even when the sympathetic ties of family or class are involved. It also underlines the viciousness with which power reacts when it is challenged.” – New York Times – A.O Scott