A DOCUMENTARY about the activists who were treated as terrorists after targeting an Israeli weapons factory is set for its Scottish premiere.
Operation Recomply, from award-winning film-maker Alex Grace, uses interviews with families and loved ones to examine how the UK state has handled the case of the activists who broke into an Elbit Systems weapons factory near Bristol in August 2024.
Six people broke into the factory, but ultimately another 19 were charged in connection with the break-in following a counter-terrorism exercise code-named Operation Recomply. They are known as the “Filton 25”.
Eleven months after the break-in, in July 2025, Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the Labour Government, and members of the Filton 25 face being sentenced as terrorists despite not being charged with terrorism offences and the jury not being informed of any alleged “terror connection”.
Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer and has close ties to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) which is accused of perpetrating a genocide in Gaza as well as abetting breaches of international law elsewhere in Palestine.
Grace’s new film Operation Recomply is said to coincide “with a first in British legal history: four young defendants were sentenced under terrorism-related frameworks despite not being charged with or convicted of terrorism offences”.
A release explaining the documentary goes on: “Told through the eyes of Filton 24's loved ones, the film documents their fight for justice as the state escalates its crackdown on the pro-Palestine movement.
“Family members not only lived with the constant fear of not knowing when – or if – their loved ones would return home, but also experienced violent house raids, including the arrest of a defendant’s mother by counter-terrorism police.
“Bail applications were repeatedly refused, while some defendants spent nearly two years imprisoned before trial – four times the usual six-month legal limit.”
The documentary’s Scottish premiere will be in Edinburgh’s Out of the Blue Drill Hall on Friday, July 17. The screening will begin at 7pm, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with Grace and acquitted Filton defendant Zoe Rogers.
Then, on Wednesday July 22, there will be a second Scottish showing at the Glasgow Film Theatre. The screening will begin at 8.15pm.
