God's Own Director

To FACT this evening for a preview of the wonderful new film ‘God’s Own Country’ www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1YAhyU6-tA&vl=en (in cinemas from 1st Sept).

The film, set in God’s Own County, Yorkshire, stars Josh O’Connor as Johnny Saxby, a lonely and emotionally repressed farmer trying to keep the sinking family farm afloat whilst escaping his miserable life through binge drinking. But when Romanian migrant worker Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu) arrives to help out with the lambing, Johnny’s emotional life begins to blossom…

The film has been described as an English ‘Brokeback Mountain’ and it's easy to see the parallels, but I preferred this film's northern grit! I also find it rather satisfying that both films were directed by someone called Lee. Ang Lee in the case of ‘Brokeback Mountain’ and today's Blip subject, Francis Lee, in the case of ‘God’s Own Country’. He also wrote the script.

The film is beautifully shot with fantastic lighting and sound design. The lead actors are superb with excellent support from Gemma Jones as Johnny’s grandmother and Liverpool’s own Ian Hart as his father. The dialogue is authentically minimal and taciturn and tonight's sold-out screening was a huge hit with the audience members who participated in an enthusiastic post-viewing Q&A session with Lee and Secareanu (see Extra Photo).

It turns out that Francis comes from Yorkshire farming stock himself and was determined to make the film 100% accurate with all props bought only from local shops and businesses. I was particularly taken with his description of how he'd made the two lead actors spend a week each living and working on separate local farms prior to filming, with only minimal meetings between them; then shot the film in chronological order, not only to capture the sights, sounds and shadows of spring arriving in their natural order but also to capture the actors getting to know each other ‘in real life’ as their onscreen relationship developed. As filming progressed, they started sharing a flat together and became really good friends. I could've spent a lot longer listening to Francis talk about how the sound design was created and to Alec’s take on anti-Romanian racism in the UK and how LGBT+ rights in Romania are currently being rolled back.

The film moved me to tears on several occasions and if I hadn't been sitting in a packed cinema I probably would've bawled my head off at the end… but I won't spoil it by telling you whether my tears were because of a happy or a sad ending. You'll have to see the film for yourselves!


Today’s tune is selected in tribute to another fictional gay farmer, Adam Macy from The Archers, www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/34vwGFqH5qCcVrD1l6sLG5x/adam-macy who’s been ‘out and proud’ since 2003!

It is, of course, the Archers theme tune, ‘Barwick Green’ www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKVGFP93bPg