A film by six-time Oscar® nominee Mike Leigh

Academy Award® nominated writer/director Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies) dissects the barriers of class in this daring and compelling black comedy set during Thatcher's England.

Cyril (Philip Davis - Vera Drake) and Shirley (Ruth Sheen - Run Fatboy Run) are a young, working-class couple who, in their struggle to make ends meet, have become absorbed in socialism. Cyril's sister Valerie (Heather Tobias - The Palace) and her husband aspire to a more privileged class. The only glue holding the siblings together is their withdrawn and wistful old mother (Edna Doré - The Bill). While the country faces social discontent, each of these characters fights for their own version of survival as the world around them plummets rapidly into an era of political upheaval and confusion.

WINNER / FIPRESCI Prize / Venice Film Festival

WINNER / Peter Sellers Award for Comedy Mike Leigh / Evening Standard British Film Awards