July 2024.The mass stabbing and murder of three little girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport triggers rioting on a scale rarely seen in the UK.
One Day in Southport relives the appalling knife attack through the eyes of a surviving girl and her family and examines the roots of the mob violence which caught the government and law enforcement completely unprepared.
Police initially give no clues as to the attacker’s identity and online speculation fills the vacuum, falsely identifying the killer as a Muslim and an illegal migrant. A raging mob tries to burn down the Southport mosque and is barely held back by the police. A few days later the UK authorities disclose that the attacker is a Cardiff-born 17-year-old with Rwandan Christian parents.
As stricken Southport families mourn, mob violence erupts in 27 British towns and cities. Hundreds of angry men, women, and youths storm through city squares and residential streets, targeting mosques, asylum hotels and the police. The unrest is linked to extreme-right groups (chants of “Tommy Robinson”) and fuelled by online rumours and disinformation with a common thread of animosity towards illegal immigration (“Stop the Boats”) and Muslims. English society, media and politicians are left in shock and place the blame squarely on the “far right”. Keir Starmer’s government comes down hard on the rioters, who are processed by the courts at top speed and sentenced to a total of more than a thousand years in prison.
One Day in Southport is firmly rooted in the experience of the family we filmed, whose daughters survived the Southport stabbings. They condemn the rioting and reject the politicisation of the murders. But the film also engages with a wider question: was the ten days of mob violence last summer merely the product of a cocktail of beer, high temperatures and bored thugs spoiling for a fight, or was it a symptom of something bigger - a simmering revolt by what Tommy Robinson calls “working class dissidents”?
PRESS FEATURES
DEADLINE - ‘Leaving Neverland’ Director Dan Reed Takes “Full Throttle Journey Into Mayhem” Of UK Riots In Latest Film ‘One Day In Southport’
BROADCAST - How we balanced private tragedy and chaos to explore last summer’s riots
THE SUN - I couldn’t breathe & felt I was dying after Southport killer knifed my spine… I knew from his eyes he wanted to kill us
**** [Four Stars]
THE GUARDIAN
**** [Four Stars]
THE TIMES
**** [Four Stars]
THE I PAPER
"Dan Reed has painstakingly chronicled these terrible events."
THE IRISH TIMES
"Heartbreaking... chilling."
THE I PAPER
"Powerful."
THE MIRROR
"An urgent, intimidating quality... skilfully woven."
THE TIMES
"A sombre portrait of how a tragedy was hijacked."
THE GUARDIAN
"Heartbreaking, and a chilling insight into the new reality."
THE IRISH TIMES
"One Day in Southport asks important questions."
THE I PAPER
"Sharply immersive…"
THE TIMES
"Grimly gripping."
THE TELEGRAPH
"A horrifying portrait of Britain in 2024."
THE TIMES