The Silent Village

Friday December 17

The last time I did an internet search for the film 'Silent Village' , I found a few mentions. Recently, I was reminded of it, and searched again. I not only found the following short synopsis, but a link to the film itself.

A Welsh village and its people are used to dramatise the lives of the people of Lidice, showing their way of life before, and their fate after, the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia.

The Nazis' massacre of over 170 men in a Czech mining village prompted a swift response from sympathetic Welsh miners. They were pivotal in creating The Silent Village, a tribute to the devastated community of Lidice. The film suggests that the slaying could have happened in any similar village, and stages a bold re-enactment of the Czech events in Cwmgiedd, south Wales. (My village of birth)

Humphrey Jennings discussed the project in nearby Ystradgynlais just two months after the killings, gaining the co-operation of local pitmen, South Wales Miners' Federation president Arthur Horner, and miners' agent Dai Dan Evans. Evans stresses on-screen the indomitability of miners and Lidice's impact in uniting pit communities.

The drama-doc, made for the Ministry of Information at the behest of Czech officials and freedom campaigners, dramatises events simply, as record. 

All the participants in the film are actual people who lived in Cwmgiedd at the time.No actors were involved.

I last saw the film at one of Yorath Methodist Church's Sunday School Christmas treats.The only memory I have of the filming,  as a five year old me, is of peeping out through the side of the blackout blinds and seeing a row of people lined up against the graveyard walls, singing. Hywel Powell, the popular shopkeeper,  in his big white apron that he wore in the shop stood out. He was a great story-teller to us kids, a favourite being the one of the tomcat with its head caught in a salmon tin, complete with sound effects. 

 

 

Yorath chapel at the top plus cemetery wall. My home is beyond the second gate on the right.

 My childhood best friend, Olwen, and her family, features in the film. Her dad, Phil Gof (Phil the blacksmith) was the local smith. A scene shows the family around a tin bath, where the youngest, Beth, was being bathed. I make a fleeting appearnce towards the end of the film, skipping across the playground of Cynlais Primary School, ringlets flying. Blink and you miss it.

The 35 minute film can be viewed on:

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-silent-village-1943-online