Cinema
Hedd Wyn
Paul Turner · 1992
Synopsis
A shepherd from the north of the country writes verse and competes in the poetry festivals of his region, where a poet is crowned each year. War arrives; he is slow to enlist, works his father's farm, then leaves in place of his younger brother, who had just been called up. Between drills and camps, he finishes a long poem which he sends to the national competition under a pseudonym. He is sent to Belgium in the summer of 1917, on the eve of an offensive.
Context
The production comes from the Welsh-language channel, won twelve years earlier at the end of a hunger strike, on a screenplay by the poet Alan Llwyd. The man in question really existed: his winner's chair was covered with a black cloth before an assembly that had just learned of his death, and the object is kept in the farm where he lived, which can be visited. The image contrasts the beauty of the poet's native land with the devastation of the Flanders battlefields. The film has done more for his memory than his written work.
Who it is for
Two hours in Welsh with subtitles. It helps to know what a Welsh poetry festival is: the film does not take the time to explain it.
Prizes and reception
The first film in Welsh, and the first British film, to be selected among the finalists for the Oscar for foreign film; it also won several British awards.