Watching ‘Billy Elliot’ again, 25 years to the week since its release, I was struck by an overwhelming sense of emotion. It remains a beautiful, deeply human film – one that captures the hardship of the 1984 miners’ strike in a Durham community still grieving the loss of a wife and mother, while telling a story about the power of self-expression and belief.

Billy (Jamie Bell), the son and brother of miners, is expected to take up boxing like other boys his age. But down the corridor from the boxing ring is a ballet class – and Billy is irresistibly drawn to it. Though not based on a true story, it feels utterly authentic. When his father (Gary Lewis) discovers his son dancing, he’s appalled: the son of a miner becoming a ballet dancer seems unthinkable, and the father draws the correlation that his son must be gay, and so bans him from going anywhere near the class. Yet outside the family, Billy finds support from his chainsmoking teacher, Mrs. Wilkinson, played with grit and warmth by Julie Walters, a woman fighting her own quiet battles.

The turning point comes during a bleak Christmas, when the family, out of money, dismantles their late wife’s piano for firewood. It’s then that Billy’s father realises the depth of his son’s talent – and the enormity of what’s at stake if it’s not nurtured. In a moving act of faith, he takes Billy to audition for ballet school, a journey that transforms both of their lives.

The film is about talent, class, and opportunity – and how gifts, if ignored, can wither along with the communities that fail to nurture them. It’s as much about a family learning to see beyond their limitations as it is about Billy’s dream itself.

Interestingly, the soundtrack, full of T. Rex and ’70s glam rock, contrasts with the Thatcher-era austerity of its setting, but somehow it works, giving the film its pulse of rebellious joy.

‘Billy Elliot’ isn’t a “fish out of water” story so much as one about belonging. Billy doesn’t reject his roots – he’s shaped by them. Even when he leaves for London, the grit and loyalty of his mining town remain part of him. That fusion of kitchen-sink realism and musical exuberance is what makes ‘Billy Elliot’ a small masterpiece – tender, funny, political, and profoundly uplifting.