Effi o Bleneau (15)
Directed by Marc Evans
⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

A LANDMARK film, this Welsh language piece is a perfectly realised gem, an absolute must see.

Based on the highly praised 2014 play Iphigenia in Splott by Gary Owen, Effi o Blaenau is set in the slate-mining town of Blaenau Ffestiniog in Gwynedd. It’s an almost mythical landscape where run-down social housing snuggles into mountainous slate dumps and lives are lived literally on the slagheap.

Effi, perfectly played by exciting new talent Leisa Gwellian, is a vodka-babe-austerity-kid with no future.  When she meets a fit-looking soldier at a club she takes her chances, gives it her all, but that wasn’t going to work.

The oldest story in the book – unplanned pregnancy – then unfolds in painful twists, leading to a moving catharsis when nature brings down the full force of tragedy.

Iphigenia means “strong-born” in ancient Greek. Leisa Gwellian delivers a multifaceted Effi, foul-mouthed – in Welsh – funny and tough, utterly convincing as the sacrificial heroine who finds depths of strength to make her indomitable.

The plotting of this social realist, kitchen-sink drama builds from skilful writing –  translation is no bar to recognising a script that probes effectively the range of emotions that Effi experiences. Written and directed by men, it’s a sensitive depiction of Effi’s predicament; this is a film for any girl who’s ever sat on a wall waiting for the stranger who’s got her pregnant to show up.

Strong women and the NHS figure at the crux of the tragedy, exposing choices people are forced to make when there is not enough society to go round. “No choice really, it’s sink or swim here,” Effi says at the end.

Beautifully shot in stunning post-industrial locations, the roots of the ancient world feed this film both through its story and crucially its telling in Welsh. There is a sense of rich cultural resources buried in a lost place. The intertwining of Britain’s oldest language in a contemporary telling of an ancient tale is an exciting vein of creativity for further mining.

In cinemas June 19