Before Battleship Potemkin, Sergei Eisenstein made Strike, a furious and inventive account of workers' resistance in pre-revolutionary Russia. Through extraordinary editing, visual experimentation and moments of dark humour, the film transforms a factory dispute into a powerful portrait of collective struggle and state violence.

 

For this screening, guitarist José Dias joins award-winning composer Tom Williams, whose electro-acoustic work has been performed internationally, from the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival to New York's International Computer Music Festival, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Moving between instrumental and electronic sound, Williams brings an adventurous approach to composition and sonic experimentation. Together, the duo responds to Eisenstein's restless images through an entirely improvised musical dialogue, exploring the film's mechanical rhythms, dramatic contrasts and unexpected possibilities without a predetermined score.