Eager to strike while the hot-button topic steals the headlines in the UK ahead of the general election on May 9, Focus Features has debuted the first teaser for political drama Suffragette, which sees Carey Mulligan and Meryl Streep taking a stand for women’s rights during the early 1900s.
As a matter of fact, the studio has even gone so far as to incorporate the marketing for the real-life drama with the #VotingMatters campaign, intertwining the old with the new. Not only that, with close to 9 million women not taking part in the vote in 2010, there’s greater impetus to attract more to the polling stations on this occasion, and Sarah Gavron (Brick Lane) will be hoping to offer up a hard-hitting perspective on the matter through her cinematic analogy.
Following Mulligan’s feminist Maud, a hard working mother, the film will orbit around her realization that she must take a stand for her own dignity, both in the workplace and at home. It’s a realization that will filter through iconic activist Emmeline Pankhurst (Streep), who will rally the foot soldiers despite facing increasingly aggressive police action.
With Oscar-nominated Mulligan and the award-winning Streep on board, and a topic that fits the Oscar criteria like a glove, don’t be too surprised if Suffragette comes up in conversation when deliberating the possible nominees at this year’s award season. Interestingly, Gavron’s drama is also the first production to gain access to England’s Houses of Parliament to film seminal scenes involving Streep. Put your money down now for the esteemed actress to deliver a rousing speech.
Suffragette will release on first in the US via limited release on October 23, before making its way across the pond for a nationwide release on October 30 in the UK. Helena Bonham Carter, Brendan Gleeson, Anne-Marie Duff and Skyfall‘s Ben Whishaw round out the impressive cast.
