Manchester, 1819. Workers, journalists, and intellectuals seek to cultivate class consciousness and demand better working and living conditions. When a crowd of 60,000 assembles in St. Peter’s Fields to demand reform, government-backed militias charge the protestors and violence erupts.

After the acclaimed Mr Turner, British master Mike Leigh returns to his socially engaged cinema by revisiting a tragic episode in England’s democratic history. While Manchester’s industrial past is reconstructed with outstanding, epic skill, Peterloo vividly resonates with today’s political climate.