Effi o Blaenau <\/p>\n
\ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d7 <\/p>\n
Director: Marc Evans<\/p>\n
Cert: None<\/p>\n
Genre: Drama<\/p>\n
Starring: Leisa Gwenllian, Tom Rhys Harries, Nel Rhys Lewis, Owen Alun, Carys Gwilym, Gavin Lee Lewis <\/p>\n
Running Time: 1 hr 31 mins<\/p>\n
Never mind the Christopher Nolan film. This week\u2019s most compelling reworking of Greek mythology is Marc Evans\u2019s robust Welsh-language Effi o Blaenau. <\/p>\n
Adapted by Marc Evans, director of Resurrection Man, and the playwright Gary Owen from Iphigenia in Splott, Owen\u2019s well-regarded one-woman show, the film relocates the action from Cardiff to Blaenau Ffestiniog, where Euripides\u2019 tale of sacrifice becomes a contemporary tragedy about poverty, inequality and criminally underfunded healthcare.<\/p>\n
It blazes across the screen with energy and urgency, sparked by a mesmerising performance from Leisa Gwenllian.<\/p>\n
Effi is trapped in a cycle of unemployment, binge drinking and crushing hangovers, barking at her nan or unfortunate neighbour and drifting through life with her friend Leanne and lovestruck Kev. <\/p>\n
She neither expects nor imagines prospects or a change of lane until she meets a former soldier, Lee, at a nightclub. She\u2019s immediately smitten and, following a nervy wait for calls or texts, pregnant.<\/p>\n
What follows is a detective story that doubles as barbed commentary on decades of austerity. Here, merciless fates are replaced by the effects of callous governance.<\/p>\n
Evans does a remarkable job of fashioning Owen\u2019s monologue into a movie. The Welsh language proves as musical as the slate landscapes of Blaenau Ffestiniog are imposing. Eira Wyn Jones\u2019s restless camerawork keeps the audience in lock-step with Effi\u2019s jagged edges.<\/p>\n
Gwenllian is magnetic, mapping Effi\u2019s journey from vodka-swilling bravado to heartbreak with gusto. Defiant, abrasive and pained, she\u2019s the beating heart of a film that stares into the lens and says, \u201cwhat are you looking at?\u201d, but in Cymraeg. <\/p>\n
In cinemas from Friday, July 17th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Effi o Blaenau \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d7 Director: Marc Evans Cert: None Genre: Drama Starring: Leisa Gwenllian,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,80,4381],"class_list":["post-550422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology","tag-wales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}