CONTRIBUTED

The Sunrise Theater presents the British film "Made in Dagenham," a period comedy/drama about the 1968 strike at the Ford plant in Dagenham, England, when a group of women walked off the job to protest unequal pay and treatment.

This film stars Golden Globe winner Sally Hawkins, Jaime Winstone, Nicola Duffett, Bob Hoskins, Miranda Richardson, Andrea Riseborough and Lorraine Stanley and is directed by Nigel Cole, who also directed the popular "Calendar Girls." This movie is rated R (for language and brief sexuality) and runs for 1 hour and 53 minutes. Shows are Thursday, Feb. 10, through Sunday, Feb. 13, at 7:30 each evening and a Sunday matinee at 2:30 p.m.

"Made in Dagenham" was nominated for four awards at the 2010 British Academy Film Awards.

The following synopsis was adapted from the Sony Pictures website:

"Life for the women of Dagenham, England, is tinged with the sounds and sights of the optimistic era, heard on their radios and seen on their TV sets. Rita O'Grady reflects that upbeat era, along with her friends and co-workers at the city's Ford Motor Factory - Sandra, Eileen, Brenda, Monica and Connie - who laugh in the face of their poor conditions. Lisa is a fiercely intelligent Cambridge-educated woman who feels a bit trapped, tending to the home with a husband that suggests she keep her opinions to herself. She may not live in the same world as the other women, but she shares their views.

"No one thought the revolution would come to Dagenham, until one day, it did. Rita, who primarily sees herself as a wife and mother, is coerced into attending a meeting with shop steward Connie, sympathetic union representative Albert and Peter Hopkins, Ford's head of industrial relations. What she expects to be simply a day out of work, complete with a free lunch, turns into much more when she and her colleagues become outraged by the lack of respect shown in the meeting to the women employees. With humor, common sense and courage, Rita and the other women take on their bosses, an increasingly belligerent local community, and finally the government, as their intelligence and unpredictability proves to be a match for their male opponents. Daring to stand up and push boundaries, the women changed a system that no one wanted to admit was broken."

The film opened in November to good reviews. Roger Ebert called it "outstanding" and wrote that "the unexpected thing about 'Made in Dagenham' is how entertaining it is. That's largely due to director Nigel Cole's choice of Sally Hawkins for his lead ... here, she shows an effortless lightness of being." Thelma Adams of US Magazine notes that "this buoyant, Oscar-bound crowd-pleaser - it's been called a female 'Full Monty,' - unpacks the true story of a 1968 all-girl strike at England's Ford factory. The marvelous Sally Hawkins shows spunk as the leader who boils over when bosses insist women don't deserve equal pay for equal work."

The historic Sunrise Theater, located at 250 NW Broad St. in Southern Pines, is nonprofit. Ticket prices are $7 for all shows. Refreshments, including beer and wine, are available, and all movies are commercial-free. Contact the theater at (910) 692-3611 or at www.sunrisetheater.com.