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Peterloo
Directed by Mike Leigh
IT'S fitting that the British premiere of Mike Leigh’s epic film Peterloo should be screened in Manchester.
It was in the heart of the city on St Peter’s Fields on August 16 1819 that the ruling class sent in sabre-wielding troops to disperse a massive yet peaceful demonstration calling for social and political reform. By the end of the evening, at least 18 people were dead and many hundreds more injured. Coming four years after Wellington’s victory over Napoleon, it was dubbed the Peterloo Massacre.
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