Hedd Wyn

My mother and I sobbed all the way through the second half of this film. To be fair, it can only be properly appreciated if you speak Welsh; the poetry loses everything in translation. It does become pretty mawkish at times but as a true Welsh woman I'm a no-holds-barred sentimentalist and I fell for it hook line and sinker.

I have given this film a 9. Being a Welshman I already knew the story of Hedd Wyn and I was very impressed with how this piece of Welsh history was put to film.

Although the film does loose something in translation, overall I was quite impressed at the skill of the translators in managing to convey at least a little bit of this man's brilliance as a bard.

The sense of loss that this film conveys is very strong and when watching this film and pondering over the life of Hedd Wyn, I can't help thinking that somewhere in the world today many more valuable lives are being lost due to needless conflict.

The Welsh have been valiantly preserving and promoting their beleaguered language and culture. In recent years, the Welsh film industry blossomed, with such inventive slices-of-life as LEAVING LENIN (1993), which was filmed in St. Petersburg, shown at international film festivals and garnered considerable interest and accolades. It showed to the world that the Welsh language is very much alive.

HEDD WYN is another example, as it depicts the life and death of one of Wales' greatest poets. Ellis Evans (Huw Garmon), under the pen name ÒHedd WynÓ writes thoughtful, spare verse which wins kudos from his countrymen. The son of a farmer, he isn't as educated as some bards, but his kind and genuine nature fuels his talent.

The film evinces his pastoral existence in his native village, his richly nuanced relationships with three different women, his reluctant transformation into a soldier, and his eventual sacrifice in World War I. More a biopic than an exploration of poetic inspiration, the film nonetheless has its lyrical moments, and was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

This Welsh-language film directed by Paul Turner is based on the true story of Ellis Evans - a young poet living in North Wales at the start of WW1. Huw Garmon is excellent as Evans - the young lover; the poet; the farm boy and, ultimately, as a young soldier sent to his death at the Somme. Evans competes in the National Eisteddfod - a cultural competition which includes the awarding of a Bardic chair to the winner of the poetry competition but, before the winner is announced Evans, whose bardic name was Hedd Wyn, is sent to the front. This film captures perfectly the Welsh traditions bound up with the Chapel and the family. It also shows vividly the young lives wasted in the conflict. The countryside of North Wales is shown in glorious colour,contrasting with the grey mud of the trenches. There is one scene where the Major is leading his troops down a country road. As they approach the camera the scene shifts to the side of the road and one sees the faces of these boys who are marching off to what we now know was almost certain death. The troops were played by young army cadets and it helps us to remember that few of those who died were old men - they were young boys - "they shall not grow old as we that are left grow old". The final scene where the Bardic chair is brought, swathed in black, to the Evans' farmhouse is so moving. The parents, grieving for their lost son, accept it with dignity knowing that he will never see his prize. A beautifully acted, directed and photographed film worthy of its Oscar nomination.

This story about the tragic life of the beloved Welsh poet Ellis Evans compares favourably with "All Quiet on the Western Front". One comes away from this film convinced of the hopelessness of war and yet, bolstered by the knowledge that for all our general savagery we humans can now and again produce poetry of sublime proportions.