At the film discussion event we held at Blue Room Theatre’s Winter Nights, I asked the special guests to recommend films in response to a question. One of the questions was “What film would you watch as the world ends?” For academic and writer Janice Loreck, one of her answers was God’s Own Country (2017), which to her spoke of “hope and humanity”. I finally watched the film after having it in my Netflix queue for months and months. In terms of that idea, of something to watch when things outside of your control are falling apart, God’s Own Country is utopian in a sense, or comforting, but not in an easy way, it’s hard-won and rooted in realism. A gay romance in the Yorkshire countryside, it is suitably atmospheric in its shots of the paddocks, fields and hills with an expansive sky of grey clouds. Yet its value is also in the empathy and understanding afforded the two characters, the quiet and drunken Johnny (Josh O’Connor, now known for playing Prince Charles in The Crown) stuck under the expectations of his family, grandmother (Gemma Jones) and father (Ian Hart) to pitch in and make their farm work after the father’s stroke, and then the handsome, observant Romanian immigrant Gheorghe (Alec Secăreanu) who is hired to help and starts living in a caravan next to the family house. More of a character study in the inexpressive, depressed Johnny who tries to pick fights with Gheorghe when they have to camp together out in the field to look after the lambs; what eventuates is a physical attraction that slowly develops into a love affair. It’s Johnny’s character that has to grow and make sense of his life to keep the happiness he has found. The two leads are excellent, and I found the film particularly moving. It pays attention to the silences, what passes between people unsaid, and delights in the textures of dirt, animals, human skin touching, and warm interiors on cold evenings. It’s gritty but open hearted, intimate and tender. Written and directed by Francis Lee. Recommended.
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