EntertainmentsuffragetteukfilmInternational Women's Day

The Stars Of 'Suffragette' Line Up For International Women's Day - Including Meryl Streep, Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter

Stars Turn Out For Women's Day
The Huffington Post UK

To celebrate International Women’s Day on Sunday, Pathé is proud to release this portrait of the women behind 'Suffragette', the first feature film to tell the story of the ordinary British women at the turn of the last century who risked everything in the fight for equality and the right to vote.

Depicted in the photograph are the stars of the film Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne-Marie Duff and Meryl Streep; the director, Sarah Gavron; the screenwriter, Abi Morgan; and the producers, Faye Ward and Alison Owen. They are joined by Helen and Laura Pankhurst, great-grand-daughter and great-great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the Suffragette movement. The photograph was taken by Brigitte Lacombe in London on 12th February 2015.

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The theme for International Women’s Day 2015 is ‘Make it Happen’ - the filmmakers depicted in the photograph did just that. According to the BFI (British Film Institute), in the 7 years from 2007 to 2013, the average percentage of British films released each year that were directed by women was 12%; and for films written by women the percentage was little better at 14.8%.

Perhaps the small number of female voices in the industry is why no feature film has ever been made about the women who 100 years ago fought for the right to vote. Their strategy of passive resistance inspired political leaders from Gandhi to Martin Luther King. It is a story that should not be forgotten.

Meryl Streep, who plays Emmeline Pankhurst in 'Suffragette', commented: "Every daughter should know this history, every son write it on his own heart."

Sarah Gavron, director of 'Suffragette', stated: “International Women’s Day celebrates the achievements of women throughout the world and I am overjoyed that my film can be part of that celebration. The story of the ordinary British women who were willing to sacrifice everything in their fight for the right to vote is an inspiration to all of us in our ongoing fight for equality.”

39 Stunning Images Celebrating Women Around The World
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Dancer performs on a float during Viradouro samba school parade at the sambodrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Feb. 28, 2006. (Andre Penner/AP)
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A Pakistani woman arranges bricks as she works at a brick factory on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday, March 8, 2010. (Muhammed Muheisen/AP)
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Nepalese women shelter under umbrellas as they work to remove weed from a paddy field in Chitwan, about 44 miles southwest of Katmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Aug.1, 2010. (/APGemunu Amarasinghe/AP)
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A North Korean woman works at the Kim Jong Suk Pyongyang textile factory, Thursday, July 31, 2014, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Wong Maye-E/AP)
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In this Wednesday, March, 5, 2014 photo, Afghan women boxers practice at the Kabul stadium boxing club. (Massoud Hossaini/AP)
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An Indian female laborer works at a brick factory in Allahabad on March 7, 2013. (Sanjay Kanojia/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pallaqueras, female gold miners, search for gold on a load of waste rock from the gold mines on Aug. 4 2012 in La Rinconada, Peru. (Jan Sochor/Latincontent/Getty Images)
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A Bedouin woman of the Al-Qiyaan tribe stands while working outside her house on Dec. 5, 2013 At the Bedouin village of Umm Al-Hiran, Israel. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
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A woman working on her wooden weaving loom in the countryside of Bhutan. (Andrew Eio/Getty Images)
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Mandy Diehr, employee of the Landgut Pretschen farm, checks the maturity of chicory plants on Jan. 2, 2014 in Pretschen, eastern Germany. (PATRICK PLEUL/AFP/Getty Images)
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[Second semester s]Students in the nutrition technology department [seen here] working on acid base volumetric analysis at the Beuth technical college on Oct. 31, 2013 in Berlin, Germany. (Thomas Koehler/Photothek via Getty Images)
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A female engineer hand-builds a M157 5.5L V8 bi-turbo engine at the Mercedes-AMG engine production factory in Affalterbach, Germany. (Tim Graham/Getty Images)
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An Akha Hilltribe woman picks Oolong #17 tea leaves during a harvest at the Suwirun Tea farm in the hills outside of Chaing Rai Nov. 11, 2012 in Chiang Rai, Thailand. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
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Portrait of American artist and illustrator Tara McPherson in her studio in New York, on Aug. 24, 2013. (Joby Sessions/Computer Arts Magazine/Getty Images)
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A Cuban woman works in the H. Upmann cigar factory on Feb. 26, 2015 in Havana, Cuba. (Sven Creutzmann/Mambo Photo/Getty Images)
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Liu Shujian, a [ninety]90-year-old lady, continues her electro welding work at Wanshousi Street on Dec. 5, 2014 in Shenyang, Liaoning province of China. (ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)
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Woman Firefighter, Eugenie Thompson, on Oct. 1 2004. (Anthony Johson/Fairfax Media /Getty Images)
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Porcelain items are stored at a plant of porcelain manufacturing society JL Coquet in Saint-Leonard-de-Noblat near Limoges, FRANCE? on July 5, 2013. (MEHDI FEDOUACH/AFP/Getty Images)
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Batik craftswomen apply melted wax to fine cotton textiles to produce characteristic figurative designs at a workshop in Solo city in Central Java NEED COUNTRY on June 29, 2009. (ROMEO GACAD/AFP/Getty Images)
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Indian actress Vemi Rephung from Nagaland (C) takes a break during the shooting of a song sequence on the sets of the forthcoming Bollywood movie - "Go Goa Gone" at Filmcity in Mumbai on April 8, 2013. (INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images)
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Women working in a ginger and spice factory, selecting ginger roots in the Fort Cochin area on Nov. 23, 2011 in Cochin, Kerala, India. (EyesWideOpen/Getty Images)
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A woman distributes salt in Baie des Moustiques, Port de Paix IN HAITI on April 3, 2014. (HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images)
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Palestinian woman Amal Abu-Rqayiq works at her small carpentry work-shop in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the Gaza City, Gaza on March 8, 2014. Amal is a 40-year-old divorcee and working in a male-dominated profession to help raise a daughter with special needs. (Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
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A young African woman at work in the fields, watering crops just outside Bangui pictured on March 13, 2014 near Bangui, Central African Republic. (Thomas Koehler/Photothek/Getty Images)
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Workers handle rubber sheets as they pass through a rubber sheet washing machine at the Thai Hua Rubber Pcl factory in Samnuktong, Rayong province, Thailand, on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014. (Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
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A Palestinian woman works on her laptop in a coffee shop on September 18, 2013 in Ramallah, West-Bank. (Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Images)
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An employee of the Lemaitre Demeestere company works with a linen loom on April 16, 2013 in Halluin, northern France. (PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images)
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An employee stands in front of bottles at a winery in Tbilisi, on Feb. 11, 2013. (VANO SHLAMOV/AFP/Getty Images)
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Women taking part in a cash for work program run by the French non-governmental organization Action Against Hunger to build dikes to hold water pose on March 21, 2012 near the village of Palboa, 300 kms northeast of Ouagadougou COUNTRY?. (RAPHAEL DE BENGY/AFP/Getty Images)
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Day laborers carry bananas during a harvest in a field in the district of Burhanpur, Madhya Pradesh, India, on Friday, Oct. 19, 2012. (Sanjit Das/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
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Cristina Isidro Salazar (left) and Felicitas Contreras Santiago repair their truck so they can deliver wood to construction sites around town on October 30, 2006 in the town of San Pablo Huixtepec COUNTRY. (Dana Romanoff/Getty Images)
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An Indian woman works collecting salt in the salt pans near Dhrangadhra, Gujarat. (Malcolm Chapman/Getty Images)
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Mahboubeh Khoshsolat, one of the only women's fire and rescue units in the Middle East, slides down the fire pole at Fire Station No. 9 Oct. 5, 2005 in the city of Karaj, west of the Iranian capital Tehran. (Scott Peterson/Getty Images)
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Women pose on a shea butter production line for the French cosmetics company L'Occitane in Leo, south-central Burkina Faso, on Jan. 24, 2014. (LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/Getty Images)
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Photo taken on January 22, 2014, shows women working on a carpet in a tiny factory in Kostandovo, a small village in Bulgaria's southern Rhodope mountains. (DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP/Getty Images)
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A Pakistani woman potter gives the final touches to earthen pots at a workshop on the outskirts of Lahore on June 9, 2011. (Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images)
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A picture taken on July 8, 2013 shows a woman working on a wind turbine at a plant of Gamesa in the Northern Spanish village of Aoiz, Navarra province. (RAFA RIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)
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An Iraqi woman works to collect salt from a water course near Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq. Wednesday, March 25, 2009. (Alaa al-Marjani/AP)

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