Writer director Francis Lee’s feature film debut ‘God’s Own Country’ dealt with the frustrations of working alone on a farm and turning to binge drinking and sex which sounds like the Editor’s marriage except without the sex.
There’s an earthy reality about the film and its honest and, at times graphic, depiction of love between Josh O Connor as the farmhand Johnny and Alec Secareanu as the Romanian help Gheorghe hired in to assist on the farm is due to the proudly gay director Francis Lee. It’s earned him a BAFTA award nomination for outstanding film of the year and has already won British Independent Film Awards for Best Film, Best Debut Screenwriter, Best Actor and Best Sound and the latest in a whole slew of awards it has garnered over the past few months.
Dubbed the English Brokeback Mountain there is undoubtedly a similarity but there’s enough here to differentiate it from that film none more so than the love scenes which are not shy in portraying some frank and intimate moments which are enough to start the Daily Mail frothing at the mouth. It’s not just the sex though as the film does include equally graphic and brutal moments when dealing with the reality of farm life and livestock and are realistic having been shot on a real working farm where both leads lived and worked for several weeks before filming began.
It’s not going to be for everyone but at the core of the film is an intense relationship that knocks Johnny off his feet (it was the same with our Editor and his wife albeit she ran him over in her car although he’s convinced it was intentional especially as she was stopped at a red light at the time and then reversed back over him to make sure).
The disc is light on extras with only a bunch of deleted scenes or moments from scenes that have been edited down and a commentary track with the director and two leads would have given an insight into the filming.
Blu ray / DVFD is released on 29th January 2018
*******FIVE FASCINATING FACTS ABOUT ‘GOD’S OWN COUNTRY’*******
- Francis Lee worked as an actor before directing and had a small role in Vitoria Wood’s TV sitcom DinnerLadies
- He grew up on a farm in West Yorkshire.
- Actor Alec Secareanu’s character is based on a real life Romanian that director Francis Lee met.
- Despite the full frontal male nudity it has a certificate of 11 in Sweden meaning that it has the same certificate there as The Last Jedi, Pitch Perfect 3 & Murder on the Orient Express.
- At no point does God turn up and say, ‘This is my country now get off my laaaand!’ (You’re fired – Ed).
Here’s the trailer…….
