World War II · Film · 2016
Their Finest
During the Blitz a young copywriter is hired by the Ministry of Information to write the women's dialogue for a morale-boosting film about Dunkirk, and ends up shaping the whole picture.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 2 places.
Stop 1: Ministry of Information, London
Key location
Catrin is hired to write 'slop', the women's dialogue, and turns two sisters' small Dunkirk story into a screenplay while bombs fall on London.
Stop 2: Devon coast
On location by the sea, the crew battles the weather, an untalented American pilot cast as a hero and a vain old actor.
What really happened
Britain's Ministry of Information, based in Senate House in London, commissioned films to keep up morale and win American sympathy. After Dunkirk, stories of the civilian little ships became a propaganda gift, and feature films and shorts about ordinary Britons at war were produced while London was bombed night after night from September 1940.
Based on Lissa Evans's novel Their Finest Hour and a Half, the film's writers, twins and the fading star are fictional, as is the Dunkirk film they make. It does reflect real conditions: women filled new jobs in film and government, often on lower pay than men, and studios kept working through the Blitz.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- Their Finest
- Directed by
- Lone Scherfig
- Countries
- United Kingdom
- Languages
- English
- Released
- 2016
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Home front
- Comedy
- Romance
