The six of the Filton24 facing retrial
In the ongoing case of what is now the Filton 25, Alex Grace’s documentary Operation Recomply has sharply exposed the overreaches of the British state.
The film opens with music by Lowkey and images of protests outside the prisons in which Palestine Action activists were held.
It shows footage from the action at the Elbit Systems site in August 2024. Actionists smashed up drones—used by Israel to carry out their genocide on Palestine—with crowbars.
Six of them were arrested on site. 18 have been arrested since, including eight by armed police in dawn raids, designated Operation Recomply. One more already being held over other actions has also been charged.
By following the events after their arrest, the documentary unveils the awful treatment they have faced.
It’s highly humanising. Their actions are shown to come from a place of trying to save lives, rather than as irresponsible or violent, as the state tries to paint them.
Interviews with the actionist’s families were central. They were left traumatised by the raids, but their resolve was hardened.
Emma Kamio, the mother of one of them, was wrongfully arrested herself and held in solitary confinement for five days under the Terrorism Act. Rather than letting herself be intimidated, she said “I felt like the state had radicalised me”.
Many of the relatives have become tireless activists since.
The documentary gained weight from the involvement of Declassified UK and Cage International, who in it outline some of the legal frameworks at play.
These include laws being stretched to hold the prisoners in remand longer than the six months it should take to begin a trial.
The proscription of Palestine Action was also emphasised as an overreach. The government has never before attempted to equate property damage with terrorism.
When footage of the break in to Brize Norton, a catalyst for the proscription, was shown, the cinema erupted into cheers.
The sense of invigoration that the film gave people to keep fighting back was palpable.
Operation Recomply underlines the lengths the British state will go to quash dissent against Israel. It puts the real criminals on trial.
