Suffragette (in german language)

Movie in german language.

GB 2015, 107 Min.
Director: Sarah Gavron
with: Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Brendan Gleeson, Anne-Marie Duff, Ben Whishaw, Romola Garai, Meryl Streep, Finbar Lynch, Natalie Press, Samuel West, Geoff Bell, Adrian Schiller

In 1912, Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan) is a 24-year-old laundress. While delivering a package one day, she is caught up in a suffragette riot involving smashing windows, where she recognizes one of her co-workers, Violet Miller (Anne-Marie Duff). Later, Alice Haughton (Romola Garai), the wife of an MP, encourages the women from the laundry to speak out to parliament and give testimony in order to secure the right to vote. Violet is the one who offers to testify; however, she is beaten by her abusive husband and subsequently Maud is the one who testifies. Maud is energized by her testimony and goes with Violet and other women to see if women have been given the right to vote. When she learns that they have not, the police officers turn on the women and begin beating them. Maud is caught up in the crowd and is arrested for a week. While in jail, she meets Emily Davison, a confidant of Emmeline Pankhurst.

Returning home, Maud faces social stigma from her neighbours and co-workers. She promises her husband Sonny to stay away from the suffragettes. However, Maud is invited to a secret rally to hear Pankhurst speak. While there, she has a brief exchange with Pankhurst, after which she is detained by the police again who drop her off in front of her home. This time, her husband throws her out on the street. Maud struggles to see her son despite her husband's objections and continues to work until her picture is printed in the newspaper as a known suffragette. Maud is then fired and, reaching a breaking point, takes an iron and burns the hand of her male supervisor (who has been sexually abusing her and other young girls in the laundry for years). The police are called and Inspector Steed (Brendan Gleeson) allows her to leave and offers her an opportunity to inform on the other members of her cell. Maud refuses.

Sonny continues to bar Maud from seeing their son, and points out that legally, he can do so. This prompts Maud into more radicalism and get laws changed in favour of women's rights. Eventually she learns that, as Sonny has been ostracized by the community, he no longer feels capable of taking care of their child. He gives their son Georgie up for adoption. With no family ties, Maud becomes more and more radical and is involved in the bombing of mailboxes and the cutting of telegraph wires. Then she and her comrades are imprisoned again after they blow up an empty Parliamentary residence. In prison, Maud goes on hunger strike and is subjected to brutal force-feeding that horrifies even Steed.

However, the police begin to pressure the newspapers to drop the story and the suffragettes feel that they must do more drastic activities in order to gain attention for their cause. The women decide to attend the Epsom Derby, where King George V will be in attendance in order to step in front of the cameras and unfurl their pro-suffrage banners. However, on the day of the event, only Maud and Emily Davison are able to make the event. When they are blocked off from the area where King George V is standing, Emily decides that they must carry on anyway. While the race is in flight, Emily steps onto the track and Maud witnesses as she is trampled to death. Suffragette Maud later joins in her funeral procession; and, the film ends by revealing women's rights were recognised in Britain in 1928. Scrolling text reveal other countries who followed suit to the present day.