CEREMONY
Friedrich Engels - philosopher, writer and radical thinker - is coming back home.
Turner Prize-nominated artist Phil Collins is returning Engels to the city where he made his name - in the form of a Soviet-era statue, driven across Europe and permanently installed in the centre of Manchester as the closing event of this year’s Manchester International Festival.
Directed by Phil Collins, with a soundtrack by Mica Levi (Jackie, Under the Skin) and Demdike Stare, and a new anthem composed by Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals), this film will mark one hundred years since the ideas in The Communist Manifesto, written by Engels and Karl Marx, changed the course of history by inspiring the Russian Revolution.
Engels arrived in Manchester in 1842 and documented the plight of the city’s working classes in The Condition of the Working Class in England. Collins’ film for BBC Four will not only document the statue’s journey but also the lives of Manchester workers today and a live event specially created to welcome the statue to the city.
Directed by Phil Collins
For BBC, a Tigerlily and Shady Lane Production
60 minutes
‘Those scenes give a voice to the people who are heard on TV all too seldom.’
Radio Times