The latest award-winning documentary from Felipe Bustos Sierra showcases a sudden and determined act of protest from Glaswegians when two members of their community are threatened with deportation. With moving performances from Glaswegian actresses Keira Lucchessi and Katie Dickie, alongside Emma Thompson, audiences can expect to be blown away by this emotionally thrilling documentary, showcasing the strength of civil resistance in a community united by purpose.
It’s the 13th of May 2021, there’s nothing really special about it: overcast, dry and threatening a bit of sunshine. Pretty standard for Glasgow that time of year.
Under the cover of grey skies, residents of Pollockshields on the city’s south side are getting ready to start school and head to work. Many more, however, see a different forecast; a sacred day of celebration, because that particular Thursday, was Eid al-Fitr.
One of the most holy days on the Muslim calendar, in Scotland’s most diverse community, it’s a time of celebration and coming together to break the month-long dawn-till-dusk fasting during Ramadan. It’s meant to be a time to relax and recuperate, but little did this quiet community know, they would have to come together for an entirely different reason.
Early that morning, in the midst of that community and, on Eid of all days, an unsuspecting white van pulls in next to a bus stop on a fairly normal, tenement-lined street. Out of the van-emblazoned with “Immigration Enforcement” and complete with the Home Office logo-steps two enforcement officers. They are here to conduct what is commonly known as a ‘dawn raid,’ an all too-well-known detention strategy.
Shortly after their arrival, residents are alerted to a commotion in the tenement building close, when they go to investigate, they see two of their neighbours being escorted downstairs, and into the back of that vehicle. Alarmed by the unusual nature of two valued members of the community being taken away without warning, those neighbours take to social media asking for help, but nobody could have expected the response that would come.
Felipe Bustos Sierra takes a deep dive into the Kenmure Street Protest, exploring through the eyes of people reacting in real time to two Indian-born, valued members of the community are dragged into an immigration van, seemingly, with no justification. Through social media clips, live videos from the time, photos and witnesses, he recounts how hundreds of people slowly heard the news, dropping everything to come to the aid of two strangers, with dozens of police vans in tow.
Front and centre in the film, are beautiful acts of courage and community shown by protesters that day, with people sharing food and refreshment among the dozens of protestors who had put their own bodies on the line to prevent the van from moving. Everybody to Kenmure Street shows how one simple act can open a space just wide enough that great change can be enacted.
No more is that expressed than by Emma Thompson’s claustrophobic portrayal of ‘Van Man,’ an anonymous folk hero who, before most protestors or even the police had arrived, crawled under the Home Office vehicle, clinging to the underside so that they could not drive away. He is widely considered to be the reason enough time was bought for greater numbers of protestors to arrive.
Glaswegian actress Katie Dickie, who reenacts an off-duty nurse who remained with Emma Thompson’s Van Man for the duration of the protest, ensuring his health and safety, the two take audiences on a granular and deeply moving exploration of one small protest inside a much larger protest.
But the film is much more than just one protest. Kenmure Street is placed at the heart of Glasgow’s long history of great civil resistance and great contradictions.
The opening shots of the film take the viewer on journey, a journey of immigrants and their history in Glasgow, as well as Glasgow and its journey of conquest and subjugation throughout the world. It’s a tragically stark juxtaposition that shows the character of Glasgow’s people from the story of Nelson Mandela Place to Jamaica under the brutal oppression of colonialism.
Ironically, Glasgow is a city-and a people-who will proudly self-identify as anti-racist and even anti-imperialist, but Felipe doesn’t shy away from confronting viewers with how Glasgow-and even the Pollockshields area itself-were built on the backs of enslaved people, particularly with the profits from tobacco plantations in the Caribbean.
Amid these inherent contradictions of modern attitudes, and historical injustices that have benefited the city so fundamentally, I asked Director Felipe Bustos Sierra what message he wanted the people of Glasgow, and audiences farther afield, to take away from his film about the past, present and future:
“The message is what happened on Kenmure Street,” he tells me on a damp Red Carpet at this year’s Glasgow Film Festival Opening Gala. “Glasgow has always been a learning space for so many immigrants over the years, starting with Gael speakers coming from the North, being cleared from their land to find work in Glasgow,” he says.
“They became the new Scots for Irish immigrants…Irish immigrants became the new immigrants for Jewish immigrants and so on,” he continues. “It’s a place-particularly the south side-that has found ways to be welcoming, and to fight back against racism and bigotry. Despite all this, Glasgow is a city that has profited massively from the exploitation of people in India, Pakistan and the West Indies.”
Gesturing to scenes around the press pen, Felipe tells me “all these buildings that are surrounding us, particularly in the city centre of Glasgow, that money comes from these places, and we have to find a space we can exist in, and be open about it, and be honest about it, and take that understanding to create a better society.”
“The lesson of Kenmure Street is when you create a safe space, as the people did on that day, although nobody knew who was in that van, the initial impulse was to help the two people of colour.”
Everybody to Kenmure Street is an uplifting and inspiring story of how a community triumphed over a government that only looked to divide and conquer. It showcases the heartfelt and passionate response from Glasgow’s inhabitants, the peaceful but determined act of civil resistance against injustice to protect their own.
Felipe Bustos Sierra pays homage to the great city of Glasgow and its people, without whitewashing its history, acknowledging the importance of accepting the past in order to create a brighter future. Through the eyes of those who bravely stood their ground that day, they recount in their own words, and through the images they captured the unbelievable impulse to defend two strangers.
The combination of historical archive footage against hand-held mobile phone videos draws a continuous line from the past, contextualising the Kenmure Street protest in local history, and leaves the audience with an embodied passion and confidence to uphold justice.
Check out my latest review on Everybody to Kenmure Street, the latest award-winning documentary from BAFTA-winning director Felipe Bustos Sierra.
The film premiered at the Glasgow Film Festival on the 25th of February.
You can watch it in cinemas across the UK and Ireland from March 13th 2026.
Rating: 5 stars out of 5.
