Sheffield DocFest opener We, The Hated is a provocative and intriguing behind-the-scenes look at the work of – and some of the personalities involved in – the British protest group Just Stop Oil, which took part in a series of high-profile protests between 2022 and 2025. Evocatively and perhaps a little clumsily titled, the film nevertheless wears its heart on its sleeve, especially given that it is directed by the partner of one of the founders of the organisation.
The group favoured nonviolent direct action, with activists operating in autonomous blocs, with the message essentially a simple one – total opposition to the UK government granting new fossil fuel licencing and production agreements, based on an underlying support for renewable energy.
As co-founder Indigo Rumbelow (partner of the film’s director Rich Felgate), points out: “We didn’t just pick a fight with the oil industry. We picked a fight with the government, the police, the courts and the media.” The question asks is quite simple: how bad do things have to get before you stand up and do something?
The film opens and closes with Felgate accepting telephone calls from Rumbelow in prison where she is serving time, before charting the history of the group through footage – some insider, some via media and police – of the protests that helped bring attention to the movement.
Other members are featured to help give the film insight and balance – such as vicar Mark, who lays down in the road in front of traffic and admits he receives a ‘polite silence within the church’; young activist Phoebe Plummer who, with a colleague, threw tomato soup at Van Gogh’s 1888 painting ‘Sunflowers’ at the National Gallery, and older woman Jane, who is worried about her blind husband’s upset at her protests, but is still determined to take a moral stand.
Their intimate participation helps give the film a real insider’s look at Just Stop Oil as it asks what it really costs to take a stand in a supposedly democratic society. Given they engage in such high-profile protests – from sporting events and art galleries through to blocking roads – it does seem rather odd when of the soup-throwing Plummer says she was “not prepared for the media storm,” given that was the purpose of the exercise.
But once the Mail On Line starts to offer up various exposés about some of the participants, the media landscape changes substantially. There is also plenty of footage of protesters being verbally (and sometimes physically) abused by angry members of the public (usually drivers stuck in traffic), though balanced occasionally by folk (on bikes or on foot) offering support.
Yes, the film’s POV is very one-sided, but it is made clear that these are individuals who have weighed up the personal consequences of action against the existential stakes of inaction, and have taken the only moral option they feel is open to them.
The truth about fossil fuels driving both the climate crisis and global conflict seem to be accepted by most people, and the protestors are simply demonstrating their frustration about lack of action. But as governments increasingly crack down on dissent, the film raises urgent questions about ‘protest, power and what democracy actually means in practice.’
Director Felgate pops up occasionally in the film, with his relationship with Indigo Rumbelow providing a warm-hearted narrative spine (engagingly she also gets an’ Executive Fixer’ credit), but on the whole he and his editors do a good job of providing a unique perspective of a time in the UK when protest hit the headlines and perhaps made people think…even if just for a short while.
UK, 2026, 89mins
Dir: Rich Felgate
Production: Firebreak Films, Passion Planet
International sales: Firebreak Films
Producers: David Allen, Rich Felgate, Gaby Bastyra
Cinematography: Rich Felgate
Editors: Rachel Roberts, Shan McCormack
Music: Lindsay Wright
