''Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution'' is a 2007 British

comedy drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple co ...

film, directed by

Bille Eltringham Bille Eltringham (sometimes mis-spelt 'Billie') is a British film and television director. She is a graduate of Bournemouth Film School. Her most recent film is ''Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution'' (2007). She co-directed ''The Darkest Light'' (1999) w ...

and starring

Catherine Tate Catherine Jane Ford (born 5 December 1969), known professionally as Catherine Tate, is an English actress, comedian and writer. She has won numerous awards for her work on the BBC sketch comedy series ''The Catherine Tate Show'' (2004–2007), ...

Iain Glen Iain Alan Sutherland Glen (born 24 June 1961) is a Scottish actor. Glen is best known for his roles as Dr. Alexander Isaacs/Tyrant in three films of the ''Resident Evil'' film series (2004–2016) and as Ser Jorah Mormont in the HBO fantasy te ...

and Brittany Ashworth, about a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

family who move to

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

in 1968, during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

. It was filmed in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

(UK), and was released on 9 July 2007 at the

Cambridge Film Festival The Cambridge Film Festival is the third-longest-running film festival in the UK. The festival historically took place during early July, but now takes place annually during Autumn in Cambridge. It is organised by the registered charity Cambri ...

, and nationwide in the UK on 28 September.

Cast

as Dorothy Ratcliffe *

as Frank Ratcliffe * Brittany Ashworth as Alex Ratcliffe *

Heike Makatsch Heike Makatsch (; born 13 August 1971) is a German actress. She is known for her roles as Lisa Addison in ''Resident Evil'' (2002), Mia in ''Love Actually'' (2003), and as Liesel's mother in ''The Book Thief'' (2013). Early life Makatsch was bo ...

as Frau Unger *

Jessica Barden Jessica Amy Barden (born 21 July 1992) is an English actress. She began her career as a child actress. She is best known for her role as Alyssa in the Channel 4 comedy-drama ''The End of the F***ing World'' (2017–2019). She received a British ...

as Mary Ratcliffe *

Christian Brassington Christian Brassington (born 6 June 1983) is an English actor and writer, best known for playing the odious vicar Ossie Whitworth in the third and fourth series of the BBC hit period drama ''Poldark''. Brassington also portrayed a young Boris John ...

as Thomas *

Nigel Betts Nigel Betts is an English actor, who from 2003 to 2007 appeared on the ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale'' as Eddie Hope. He also portrayed Tony in the BBC Two sitcom '' Boy Meets Girl'' and had a recurring role as Mr Armitage in the eighth series o ...

as Uncle Philip *

Robert Daniel Lowe Robert Daniel Lowe (born 1985 in Wandsworth, London) is an English stage, television and film actor. Among his many theatre roles is that of 'Fleance' in Macbeth,http://www.moviescopemag.com/24-fps/one-to-watch/actor/robert-daniel-lowe-one-to-wat ...

as Otto * Ottilia Borbáth as Frau Glock * Béla Fesztbaum as 1st Stasi Officer * Fanni Futár as Uti * Imola Gáspár as Art Teacher * Ákos Horváth as 2nd Border Guard * Barna Illyés as Gym Teacher * John Kirk as Mr. Murray * Karl Kranzkowski as Rector * Uwe Lauer as Truck Driver * Piroska Móga as Ursula * Ben O'Brien as 2nd Stasi Officer * Gábor Pintér as 1st Border Guard * Alexander Scheer as Willi * Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey as Jerzy *

Katharina Thalbach Katharina Thalbach (; actually ''Katharina Joachim genannt Thalbach''; born 19 January 1954) is a German actress and stage director. She played theatre at the Berliner Ensemble and at the Volksbühne Berlin, and was actress in the film ''The T ...

as Anna * Susan Tordoff as Mary's Teacher * Stephan Wolf-Schönburg as Herr Vort

Reception

, ''Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution'' holds an 83% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on six reviews with an average rating of 5.6/10. Because of its limited release, there were few reviews, but ''Channel 4 Online'' and ''The Guardian Films'' cited the film as a vehicle for the blooming film careers of both

and Brittany Ashworth.Proletarian utopia? Am I bovvered? , UK news , The Observer
/ref> The film won the Audience Award at the Wurzburg International Film Weekend.

References

External links

*

*
Channel 4 Film Review
2007 films 2007 comedy-drama films British comedy-drama films 2007 comedy films 2007 drama films Films set in East Germany 2000s English-language films 2000s British films {{2000s-UK-film-stub