AN INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY
Operation Recomply follows family members of the Filton 25 and documents their fight for justice while the state escalates its crackdown on the pro Palestine movement. Strangers transform grief into a community bound by love, support and resistance as the government uses terrorism laws to criminalise peaceful protest.
On 6 August 2024, six Palestine Action activists were arrested on site at Elbit Systems, the headquarters of an Israeli weapons manufacturer in Filton, England.
When activists broke into the factory, with the aim of disrupting the arms trade to Israel, they discovered (and destroyed) undeclared and fully assembled quadcopter drones boxed and ready for export. This led to an unprecedented counter-terror policing investigation known as 'Operation Recomply'.
By July 2025, twenty four people had been arrested in relation to the Filton action; they were all held under the Terrorism Act before being remanded to prison.
Family members experienced violent house raids and were left with the lingering uncertainly of not knowing when - if ever - their loved ones would return home. Bail applications were refused and defendants faced up to two years in prison before standing trial, with the additional threat of a ‘terrorism enhancer' which allows the judge to add decades to the usual sentencing guidelines if convicted.
'to hear the birds, the drones must be silent'
