Republican upset after film showing abuse (8)
I believe the answer is:
mistreat
'abuse' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'republican upset after film' is the wordplay.
'republican' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'upset' becomes 'eat' (eat can mean to upset or distress).
'after' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'film' becomes 'mist' (I've seen this before).
'r'+'eat'='reat'
'reat' after 'mist' is 'MISTREAT'.
'showing' is the link.
(Other definitions for mistreat that I've seen before include "Deal unfairly with" , "Handle badly" , "Abuse" , "Handle unfairly" , "Behave badly towards" .)