What do Swedish pop legends ABBA and Welsh miners have in common? Both have been captured on film by renowned Swedish director Kjell-Åke Andersson.
Just three years after directing one of ABBA’s final music videos, The Day Before You Came, Andersson took on a very different project, documenting the miners’ strike in south Wales.
His 1985 film, Breaking Point, provides a raw and emotional snapshot of life in Oakdale, Caerphilly, during the final weeks of the national miners’ strike.
For Andersson, the film was about more than just the events of the strike; it was a chance to show the solidarity of the miners, countering what he viewed as biased media coverage back in Sweden.
“I wanted to show the miners’ solidarity instead of Thatcher’s propaganda,” Andersson explained.
Almost 40 years later, the 75-year-old filmmaker returned to the valleys of south Wales to reunite with some of the families he filmed, including Ray and Kath Francis.
Ray, one of 22,000 Welsh miners who went on strike between 1984 and 1985, and his wife Kath, who supported the miners through food collection efforts, became focal points of the documentary.
Reflecting on his return to their home, where they raised four children, Andersson described the experience as deeply emotional. “It was very emotional for me – and in the same house 40 years on – it was so emotional.”
The miners’ strike of the 1980s attracted global media attention, but Andersson felt the portrayal was skewed.
After witnessing firsthand the impact of the strike on families in south Wales in 1974, he returned in 1984, determined to give a more balanced view.
“I was angry because the newspapers and TV were describing the strike from Mrs. Thatcher’s point of view. I hated that,” Andersson said. “So, I said I need to go there and make a documentary because this is not the right view of the strike.”
Breaking Point shines a spotlight not only on the miners but also on the crucial role women played during the strike.
Kath Francis, who later studied for a degree and became a social worker, was one of many women who supported the miners by organizing food collections and joining picket lines.
Ray praised the women’s contributions, saying, “If it wasn’t for the women, we wouldn’t have lasted that long.”
Andersson, too, noted the changing role of women during the strike.
“The strike had a good effect on the women who got a chance to act, not just as a woman or a wife, but in some ways, they were at the same level as the men,” he said.
Kath and other women are seen in the film knocking on doors, asking for donations to support the miners and their families.
While Andersson captured the intense solidarity of the community, he didn’t foresee the end of the strike.
Shortly after he returned to Sweden to edit the film, the strike came to an abrupt close on 3 March 1985, when miners were instructed by the National Union of Mineworkers to return to work.
Despite not sensing the impending conclusion, Breaking Point remains a poignant tribute to the resilience and unity of south Wales’ mining communities.
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