Effi o Blaenau
Leisha Gwenillian gives a blistering performance in Marc Evans' Welsh-language drama inspired by the Greek tragedy Iphigenia in Aulis
Back in 2015, theatre audiences were treated to a bravura one-woman show when Gary Owen reinvented Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis as a gut-wrenching monologue by a lairy, vodka-swilling young woman living in a deprived area of Cardiff at the height of austerity. Marc Evans' new film adaptation transplants Effi (Leisa Gwenllian) into Blaenau Ffestiniog, a former mining town in Eryri. There she remains just as rowdy and her story just as vital.
The film opens with Effi in full flow. Unemployed, short on cash, rowing with her nain (Carys Gwillym) in the street and flipping gawping neighbours the bird. Still adamant to have a big night out, she and her friends end up in a nightclub, where Effi locks eyes with Lee (Tom Rhys Harries), a handsome, wounded soldier. A one-night stand follows, and then a positive pregnancy test and the revelation that Lee is happily married, leaving Effi alone and adrift.
The myth of Iphigenia centres on her being sacrificed to allow the Greek army safe travel to the Trojan War. Effi’s story – co-scripted by Evans and Owen – feels quite distinct but ultimately treads a similar path of unjust female sacrifice and the individual, human cost of cold, political decisions. The narrative beats around living on the breadline and desperately underfunded healthcare services feel as urgent as ever, and the setting combines the weight of history with a moody, slate-grey atmosphere. Amongst it all is Gwenllian, who's on blistering form as Effi – by turns magnetic, harrowing and bracingly defiant.
Released 19 Jun by MetFilm; certificate 15