Sleep Furiously
It reminded me a lot of those boring parts on Playdays and Blue Peter when they showed people at work, but with a higher quality of cinematography.

Aside from Twin Town, it is hard to think of more than a handful of films made, or even set, in Wales. In fact, of all the gaelic countries, Welsh cinema remained noticeably silent through the boom of nineties Scottish films that brought Trainspotting, Shallow Grave and Ratcatcher among others. However, the Welsh national identity shown in Koppel’s documentary about a small community struggling to cope with the advances of the modern age, is nothing short of emphatic. We see long shots of the valleys as a backdrop to the dulcet tones of a welsh choir, a subtitled welsh-language dialogue and, perhaps most evidently of all, a whole load of sheep.

Sleep Furiously starts with a tortuously slow pace. There are long drawn out shots depicting the ritual and mundane lives of the community; the straightening of a tablecloth, the shearing of a sheep, the baking of a cake. Unfortunately, the pace never really gets any quicker. So much so that it’s quite a shock to the system when a sheep jumps in the air half way through, such was the uneventful nature of the film.It reminded me a lot of those boring parts on Playdays and Blue Peter when they showed people at work, but with a higher quality of cinematography.

I spent a lot of my time waiting for something to happen but, bar the graphic births of a calf and piglet, nothing ever really does. There is a strong sense of community and realism but this is not the gritty realism of British New Wave, it’s much more indifferent and monotonous.

Koppel seems to be searching for world that keeps old traditions going and a life in which you do not have to bow to the modern age. This is best exemplified by a poem about a wooden sign read by an old man. The old sign was replaced by a modern steel one, only for the replacement to have its spokes break in the wind causing them to point in the wrong direction. He longs for the day they bring back a wooden sign that can be trusted. The film consistently invites you to embrace the community and to stick together but, with nothing really happening in the film, it’s hard to feel that strongly about it.

If I could compare it with anything, it would be a live action version of Postman Pat but without any of the drama or, in fact, an adequate structure.

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