The Happy Lands is a 2012 British film written by Peter Cox and Robert Rae about a coal-mining community in

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, during the long strike of 1926. The film was released on 17 February 2012. Much of the film's dialogue is in the

Scots language Scots ( endonym: ''Scots''; gd, Albais, ) is an Anglic language variety in the West Germanic language family, spoken in Scotland and parts of Ulster in the north of Ireland (where the local dialect is known as Ulster Scots). Most commonly ...

. The film begins with a miner suffering a back injury at a colliery in the fictional village of Carhill. When confronted about working conditions, the mine owner responds by saying that the workers are locked out until they accept a settlement that involves longer working hours and lower wages. The rest of the film shows the various stages of the eight-month strike by coal miners across Britain, including the

general strike A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large co ...

launched by the

Trade Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions in England and Wales, representing the majority of trade unions. There are 48 affiliated unions, with a total of about 5.5 million members. Frances O' ...

in support of the miners. The film makes several references to the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, in which many of the striking miners fought and were rewarded for their bravery.

Cast

* Kevin Clarke as Michael Brogan * Jokie Wallace as Dan Guthrie * Aaron Jones as Wee Baxie *

David Reilly David Fitzgerald Reilly (May 5, 1971 – October 16, 2005) was the American singer and songwriting/production partner in the electro-rock band God Lives Underwater (GLU), signed by Rick Rubin to American Recordings in 1993. Life and career Americ ...

as Joe Guthrie * Kevin Adair as Davey King * Farah Ahmed as Mary Miller * Stevie Allan as Pug Henderson * Jez Arrow as Economic League * Michael Barney as Special Constable * Madeline Berry as Granny King * Josh Brown as Pat Brogan * Cllr Willie Clarke as Regional Union Official *

Craig Clarke Craig Brian James Clarke (born ) is a retired rugby union player from New Zealand. He played as a lock during his career, winning two Super Rugby titles with the Chiefs where he served as captain. He also captained Taranaki in the ITM Cup. Be ...

as Andy Jenkins * Kristen Clarke as Billy Jenkins * Patricia Colville as Jenny Saville * Fiona Combe as Lily Wilson * Allan Stewart as

Harry Lauder Sir Henry Lauder (; 4 August 1870 – 26 February 1950)Russell, Dave"Lauder, Sir Henry (1870–1950)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition, January 2011, accessed 27 April 2014 was a S ...

* Megan Taylor as Susie Smith * Michael Todd as Miner

References

External links

Official website

UNISON Scotland's webpage on the film

BBC's webpage on the film

''The Happy Lands''
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

Relatives pay tribute to mining heroes of 1926 general strike in new film The Happy Lands

Fife man keen to mine his newly-found acting talent
2012 films 2010s historical drama films British buddy films British historical drama films English-language Scottish films Fife Films set in Scotland Films shot in Scotland Films shot in Fife Scots-language films Scottish films 2010s English-language films 2010s British films {{2010s-Scotland-film-stub