Somewhere In Macedonia

A screening of the film Somewhere In Macedonia, directed by CCW PhD student Alice Evans will take place on 17 December in the Banqueting Hall at Chelsea College of Arts from 5.30pm. During the event there will be two opportunities to view the film at both 6 and 7pm.

The narrative film is based on a series of letters sent home to Wales 100 years ago from Macedonia during the First World War. Each letter was headed 'Somewhere In Macedonia' to pass censor.

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The story introduces us to Idris, a young Welsh war poet and stretcher-bearer as he receives a letter from home. In the events that follow, we see how Idris, surviving under extreme pressure, confined to the trenches of war and repressed by the laws that forbid his sexuality, reacts to news that is to change the course of his life. Based on an archive of real letters, the film aims to show a side of history that would not have been given voice at the time.

For further details or to RSVP to attend please email: [email protected]

Director Alice Evans is pursuing a PhD, researching notions of unreliable narration alongside epistolary modes within filmmaking.

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Cast:

  • Julian Firth ' as Captain Grant
  • Iddon Jones (BAFTA Cymru) – as Idris
  • Gethin Alderman – as Bob
  • Harrison Rose – as Hywel
  • Alun Elidyr – as The Colonel

The Film:

The film was shot in the basement of a Camden housing co-op where for a week in May- the kitchen was transformed into a WWI trench. Thanks to a talented and generous team, this film could be realized on a low budget. This film is part of a larger feature project now seeking funding for development.

Screening location:

Chelsea College of Arts is a screening venue because the Royal Army Medical Corps, of which Idris would have been a member, was based at Chelsea’s Millbank site at the time when the film is set. We are using the Banqueting Hall, as this was the officer's mess in 1916.

Some of the letters that inspired this story were sent from the RAMC at Millbank in 1916 before their author went out to Macedonia. It is appropriate then to screen the film 100 years later on this site.

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