Following the 1994 horse-racing drama Eden Valley, and follow-up The Scar comes a female perspective on the mid-'80s miners' strike, in the third feature completed by Amber Collective, a community arts project founded to celebrate life in East Durham.
Based on a series of interviews and video diaries, the film explores the links between heavy industry and working-class notions of masculinity. In a region devoid of certainty since the closure of the local pit, music teacher-cum-club singer Joe Elliott (Armstrong) slaves to keep his family together.
But his association with an ambitious property developer serves only to alienate him from his pigeon-fancying father (Kelly) and his young son (Dent). Armstrong delivers an authentic sense of pride, which ensures the people matter more than the politics.