The Battle for Barking (2010)

Recommended

UK

Feature Documentary

Director/Cinematographer: Laura Fairrie

Composers: Harry Escott, Molly Nyman

Featuring: Margaret Hodge, Nick Griffin, Bob Bailey, Richard Barnbrook, Andy Kinggett, Lawrence Rustem, Robert Taylor: William Dunn, Michelle Hill, Saima Ashraf, Pastor James Gitau, Jackie Griffin, Rev Robert West, John Prescott, Giuseppe De Santis, Martin Reynolds

Despite one or two strangely sentimental moments, Fairrie’s remarkably even-handed documentary – a commentary-free account of the battle between Labour’s Margaret Hodge and the BNP’s leader Nick Griffin for the parliamentary seat for Barking in the May 2010 general election (as well as the campaign for the borough’s various council seats) – is a thoroughly enlightening and, against all the odds, decidedly human work. Iain.Stott