As fellow villagers sing the recruiting song "Your King and Country Want You" in their honor, Lizzie appears in the pub's doorway. As a farmer's son in the village of Trawsfynydd, Ellis Humphrey Evans composes poetry for local eisteddfodau under the bardic name Hedd Wyn ("Blessed Peace"). The Evans family receives another telegram which announces that Ellis' submission has won the National Eisteddfod. We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future. There is no restriction to fiction or prose. The young officer, who is unable to read Welsh, at first refuses, suspecting the poem to be a coded message to the Germans. Soon the two are deeply in love. Evans, who had been awarded several chairs for his poetry, was inspired to take the bardic name Hedd Wyn from the way sunlight penetrated the mist in the Meirionnydd valleys. A bardic name is a pseudonym used in Wales, Cornwall, or Brittany by poets and other artists, especially those involved in the eisteddfod movement. Ultimately, Lizzie returns to the village with tuberculosis. Therefore, with more work and less womanizing, Ellis could win the National Eisteddfod. Enraged, Ellis says that, if Bob were injured or killed, he could never live with himself. Eventually he relents, mails Ellis' submission, and praises him as "The Armageddon Poet". As he and Jini depart, one of the soldiers threatens to mail him a white feather. The eponymous film won a Bafta award for Best Film, but its selection by the American Academy was more complicated. On a railway journey with Jini, Ellis encounters two hideously disfigured war veterans. After submitting his entry, under his bardic name "Hedd Wyn" ("Blessed Peace") Evans later departs from Meirionydd by train to join the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in Liverpool, despite his initial misgivings about the war. [8][9][10][11], List of British submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, List of submissions to the 66th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, "Media Education Wales: Hedd Wyn (English)", "House of Commons – Culture, Media and Sport – written evidence", "The 66th Academy Awards (1994) Nominees and Winners", "Traditions and transformations: film in Wales during the 1990s", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hedd_Wyn_(film)&oldid=982347792, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 7 October 2020, at 16:04. Disgusted, William Morris calls the Anglican minister "a disgrace to his calling", and tells those nearby not to be deceived. The film then flashes back to 1913. Hedd Wyn is a 1992 Welsh anti-war biopic, written by Alan Llwyd and directed by Paul Turner. Meanwhile, international tensions rise and the British Army installs an artillery range on a local hillside, much to Ellis' annoyance. Eventually he relents, mails Ellis' submission, and praises him as "The Armageddon Poet". On a railway journey with Jini, Ellis encounters two hideously disfigured war veterans. Several weeks later his poem Yr Arwr (“The Hero”) won him the bardic chair posthumously at the National Eisteddfod, held in Birkenhead. Competitors typically number 6,000 or more, and overall attendance generally exceeds 150,000 visitors. WikiMili. Despite mounting pressure, Ellis refuses to enlist and says that he doesn't think he can kill anyone. Paul Turner, who has died aged 73, was a film director whose 1992 anti-war Welsh-language film, Hedd Wyn, telling the powerful, true story of Ellis Evans, a young poet killed at Passchendaele, became in 1993 the first British film to be nominated at the Academy Awards for a Best Foreign Language Film. They are presented by the Books Council of Wales to the best books published during the preceding calendar year in each of three awards categories, one English-language and two Welsh-language. Its nomination as a film from the United Kingdom - as opposed to Wales - caused controversy. Ellis quips, "You don't have any wings, let alone feathers.". Horrified of losing him, Jini pleads with Ellis to let Bob enlist in his place. As a result, Ellis' fiancée, Lizzie Roberts (Sue Roderick), accuses him of being "afraid of becoming a man". After a church service, she informs Ellis that he was right about the war, which is a curse. This article is about the particular significance of the year 1992 to Wales and its people. she says coldly. Robert Williams Parry was one of Wales's most notable 20th-century poets writing in Welsh. Despite his sympathy for their plight, the soldiers accuse Ellis of cowardice for remaining a civilian. Find out more, The Telegraph values your comments but kindly requests all posts are on topic, constructive and respectful. Disgusted, William Morris calls the Anglican minister "a disgrace to his calling", and tells those nearby not to be deceived. [4] Despite the insults showered on them by their English-speaking drill sergeant, Ellis and his fellow Fusiliers continue their training in good spirits and are sent to France. Hedd Wyn was Evans’s bardic name. The film then flashes back to 1913. The film's title is Ellis Evans' bardic name (pronounced  [heːð wɨ̞n] , "blessed peace"), under which he was posthumously awarded the Chair at the 1917 National Eisteddfod of Wales. Before the winner is announced Hedd Wyn gets sent to fight with the English in the trenches of the First World War. As the camera pans over the intricate carving on the infamous "Black Chair", the voice of the Archdruid Dyfed is heard vainly summoning the poet who signs his work with the nom de plume "Fleur-de-lis" to stand and be chaired. It was highlighted in 1999 when the BBC announced that year as the "year of Cool Cymru". As a farmer's son in the village of Trawsfynydd, Ellis Humphrey Evans composes poetry for local eisteddfodau under the bardic name Hedd Wyn ("Blessed Peace"). [1] [2] [3], Based on the life of Ellis Humphrey Evans (Huw Garmon), killed in the First World War, the cinematography starkly contrasts the lyrical beauty of the poet's native Meirionnydd with the bombed-out horrors of Passchendaele. [7], Hedd Wyn was the first Welsh film to be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, in 1993, at the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Academy Awards. This article is about the particular significance of the year 1926 to Wales and its people. As a result, Ellis' fiancée, Lizzie Roberts (Sue Roderick), accuses him of being "afraid of becoming a man". As a young man he joined the Welsh Communist Party for two years, was an active shop steward with the Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians, and attended two World Festivals of Youth, in Berlin and Cuba. Paul Turner, born December 30 1945, died November 1 2019. Soon the two are deeply in love. He died on the first day of the Passchendaele campaign, July 31 1917, hit by a shell without ever firing a shot himself. Hedd Wyn's awards include the Royal Television Society's Award for Best Single Drama (1992), Celtic Film Festival's Spirit of the Festival Award (1993), First Prize at the Belgium Film Festival (1994) and a section award at the Karlovy Vary Internatio… [5] [6]. Crawling through swampy shell holes filled with corpses, Ellis witnesses his fellow soldiers being shot and blown to pieces around him. After a church service, she informs Ellis that he was right about the war, which is a curse. Soon afterwards, an official of the draft board arrives at the family farm and takes down the names of Ellis and his brother Bob (Ceri Cunnington), despite the resistance of Ellis' mother (Llio Silyn). He later became a vocal supporter of Plaid Cymru. Their purpose is "[to raise] the standard of children's and young people's books and to encourage the buying and reading of good books." Although 17-year-old Bob longs to enlist instead, Ellis refuses to permit this. To the sound of R. Williams Parry's Englynion coffa Hedd Wyn (Englynion in memory of Hedd Wyn), the chair which Ellis has dreamed of all his life is delivered to his parents' farmhouse, robed in black. Turner, who went on to found a Cardiff-based independent production company, hoped that the success of Hedd Wyn would lead to a flowering of film-making in the Principality, but it was not to be, and he could not find backers to help him fulfil his dream of making a film about the Welsh hero Owain Glyndwr. she says coldly. He was posthumously awarded the bard's chair at the 1917 National Eisteddfod. Hedd Wyn; ... and was the first Welsh language film nominated for an Academy Award. He was a ‘security risk’ because of something to do with Welsh nationalism.”. He is one of the most prolific Welsh-language poets in the last quarter of the 20th century. A pacifist, he had resisted the call to war, but when a conscription tribunal insisted that either he or his 18-year-old younger brother must go, he immediately joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers. After hours of lying in no man's land, Ellis is evacuated to an aid post, where he succumbs to his injuries. The custom of chairing the bard is, however, much older than the modern eisteddfod ceremony, and is known to have taken place as early as 1176. Welsh bastard! The Tir na n-Og Awards are a set of annual children's literary awards in Wales from 1976. [8] [9] [10] [11]. This article is about the particular significance of the year 1994 to Wales and its people. Jini weeps inconsolably as she reads Ellis' last letter, in which her beloved proposed marriage in a poem. Soon afterwards, at a gathering in the village street, an Anglican minister gives a rousing sermon which demands immediate enlistment. Simultaneously, Ellis develops a close friendship with Mary Catherine Hughes (Nia Dryhurst), the young woman who is his sister's teacher. Hedd Wyn made the shortlist with only a few days of selection time to spare, though in the event it lost out to the Spanish comedy-drama Belle Epoque. Soon afterwards, an official of the draft board arrives at the family farm and takes down the names of Ellis and his brother Bob (Ceri Cunnington), despite the resistance of Ellis' mother (Llio Silyn). Hedd Wyn's awards include the Royal Television Society's Award for Best Single Drama (1992), Celtic Film Festival's Spirit of the Festival Award (1993), First Prize at the Belgium Film Festival (1994) and a section award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (1994). No one at the Academy seemed to know that there was such a language as Welsh, so a Welsh-English dictionary was sent off to prove the point, and later the film itself. Facing what may be his last chance to win the Eisteddfod, Ellis pleads with his platoon commander to send his awdl Yr Arwr (The Hero) via the Army Postal Service. Horrified of losing him, Jini pleads with Ellis to let Bob enlist in his place. Hedd Wyn Awards and Nominations. [2][4], Hedd Wyn won the Royal Television Society's Award for Best Single Drama and BAFTA Cymru Awards in several categories; and was the first Welsh language film nominated for an Academy Award.[5][6]. Therefore, with more work and less womanizing, Ellis could win the National Eisteddfod. He is also known under the pseudonym Meilir Emrys Owen. Later, in the village pub, Ellis and Moi Davies (Emlyn Gomer) are giving Griff, who is now in uniform, a send-off. List of British submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, List of submissions to the 66th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, "Media Education Wales: Hedd Wyn (English)", "House of Commons – Culture, Media and Sport – written evidence", "The 66th Academy Awards (1994) Nominees and Winners", "Traditions and transformations: film in Wales during the 1990s".