Premiered at last year’s Edinburgh Film Festival, Gideon Koppel’s first film is a hauntingly beautiful documentary filmed with great tenderness and a tangible passion for a tiny Welsh farming community that is struggling for survival.
The local primary school is threatened with closure and as with many villages across the UK, the locals have seen key services disappear as the heart of their community is slowly eroded by cost cutting measures made in offices a million miles away.
Vast sweeping, breathtaking landscapes stand alongside intimate portraits of the villagers going about their everyday lives against a moving soundtrack by Aphex Twin – this film belongs on the big screen where its great cinematography can really be appreciated.
Similarities can easily be drawn with films such as Philibert’s Etre et Avoir and Depardon’s more recent Modern Life. It is the spirit of the community, their support of each other, their fusion with nature and care for one another captured on film that will leave a lasting impression.