Directed by: Andrew Grieve
Staring: Bob Peck, Mike Gwilym, Gemma Jones, Robert Gwilym, Jack Walters
Amongst the most striking and evocative portrayals of the English countryside – actually the Welsh Borders – ever committed to film, this powerful Hardy-esque account of the hardships and joys of rural life is based on Bruce Chatwin’s novel of the same name.
Covering 80 years in the lives of Amos Jones, a stubbly and splenetic son of the soil, and his twin sons, the film enjoyed the active support and involvement of the community it depicted – Chatwin’s novel was already popular with the people of Hay-on-Wye, the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains.
Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s photography impressively captures the bleak (‘Black’) higher land and the harshness of living on it and from it, but also highlights its beauty.
This will stay with you long after the lights have come up.