Film Review | Misbehaviour raises a stink about eternal male establishment

Keira Knightley (left) and Jessie Buckley play the roles of protest leaders Sally Alexander and Jo Robinson.

In November 1970, members of a newly-formed women's liberation movement in London entered the Miss World beauty competition at the Royal Albert Hall to stage a protest against treating women as objects and ornaments. Disguised as members of the audience they threw flour bombs and stale vegetables at the organisers of the event watched by over 100 million people worldwide.

Half-a-century later, a new British film, Misbehaviour, returns the attention of the world back to the famous protest and the beginning of a change in the direction for gender politics. Directed by the BAFTA-winning Philippa Lowthorpe -- one of the directors of The Crown season two -- Misbheaviour is a period drama, which underlines the reality that little has changed for women's liberation since then.

British film Misbehaviour is a period drama about the disruption of the 1970 Miss World beauty contest in London by women's rights activists.

Starring Keira Knightley, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jessie Buckley, Greg Kinnear and Rhys Ifans, the film arrives at a moment of a new era of protests, kick-started not surprisingly by the Me Too movement two years ago and followed by the Black Lives Matter struggle, protests in Chile, Algeria, Lebanon, and by students and farmers in India.

Lowthorpe, the only woman ever to have won a BAFTA for Best Director for Call the Midwife in 2013, sets the tone with a women's conference in a hall lined by men's statues at an Oxford University college in the beginning of the film. History student Sally Alexander (Keira Knightley) joins the session after dropping her child at a nearby creche.

The new Women's Liberation Movement formed at the conference vows to achieve equal job opportunities and pay, free child care and contraception and abortion rights. "Together we will be a revolution," the women cry out in unison. It is here that Alexander first meets her fellow protesters -- prominent among them is Jo Robinson (Jessie Buckley) -- who would go on to disrupt the Miss World pageant.

In one of the movement's weekly meetings, a motion is adopted to protest outside the Miss World competition scheduled to take place soon in London on November 20, 1970. The film also puts the anger of the women against sexual objectification in perspective through the anti-apartheid movement and the Vietnam war that began a decade-and-half before.

Faced with the anti-racism movement, the Miss World Headquarters in London led by its founder Eric Morley (played by Notting Hill actor Rhys Ifans) decides to "take a white and coloured girl this year", the first called Miss South Africa and the other Miss Africa South. The blatant male authority is further underlined when Morley pauses as his wife Julia Morley (Keeley Hawes) -- the organising director of the competition -- tells him there would be protests against the Miss World contest by women who want to overthrow patriarchy. "Overthrow what?" he asks. "The male establishment, Eric," she replies.

As the contestants arrive in London and are introduced to the press dominated by male journalists and photographers, the Women's Liberation Movement tells the world that they are not against the women participating in the pageant. "The competition symbolises exploitation," Alexander says in a BBC interview. "The only other place where the participants are assigned a value is a cattle market," she adds.

Director Lowthorpe, known for her women-centric works such as the miniseries Five Daughters about the five women victims of serial murders in Ipswich, England in 2006 and miniseries Three Girls on child sex abuse, is sensitive to the pressures of women on both sides of the aisle. Jennifer Hosten (played by Black Mirror actor Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the first Miss Grenada at the contest, is an air hostess who dreams of becoming a broadcaster. Miss Sweden Marjorie Johansson (Clara Rosager) is a model who wants to use the $6,000 prize money to move to London for a university degree.

Director Philippa Lowthorpe, seen with Keira Knightley here, is the only woman to have won a BAFTA for direction.

On the day of the contest, the Women's Liberation Movement members buy tickets to gain entry to the venue. They smuggle in packets of flour and old vegetables and position themselves as part of the audience. The commentator of the televised event begins by describing the contestants as "treasures of good old earth even astronauts can't find on the moon".

The protesters decide not to take it any longer when contest host and American comedian Bob Hope (Greg Kinnear) continues his rant against the women opposing the event. "We take Miss World winners to Vietnam as a morale booster for our troops," he says, before rebuking protesters for "milking their grievances" in an apparent reference to Alexander drawing parallels between the contest and a cattle market.

Flour-bombing follows in a determined protest by Alexander and other women who climb over the chairs chanting "Shame on you" and showing banners that say "Women have minds" from the balcony. When the show returns after the disruption, Hope continues, "They got to be sick in their heads to spoil a joyous occasion."

Black Mirror actor Gugu Mbatha-Raw (first row centre) is Miss Grenada Jennifer Hosten in the film.

Filmed at locations in London, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Surrey, the film draws its strength from a spirited script co-written by Rebecca Frayn (The Lady) and Gabi Chiappe (Shetland). The ensemble cast led by Knightley, Mbatha-Raw, Buckley, Kinnear and Ifans help keep the focus on the important subject at hand. Aretha Franklin's 1967 hit Respect raises the temperature in the period drama whose theme is as relevant today as it was in 1970.

Lowthorpe's ode to the pioneers of feminist protesters is both a lesson in history and an inspiration for the new generation.