sleep furiously

Went to see “Sleep Furiously” yesterday afternoon at the Watershed. I went with an open mind…. the blurb described it thus: “This riveting directorial debut draws a lyrical portrait of a year in the life of the tiny hamlet of Trefeurig, the small farming community in Wales where Koppel’s parents, refugees from Nazi Germany, settled down and where he grew up”…. and thoroughly enjoyed it. Clearly, the word had got round because the cinema for the afternoon showing was completely, and very unusually, full (ok, it was only the small cinema 2 – but there must have been over 70 people in the audience). The film isn’t quite a documentary; it merely puts together simple scenes from country life in a rather beautiful, sometimes amusing, way. I suspect that, in years to come, it will have become one of those iconic films that reflect a past life.

Actually, yesterday was a rather a strange day in many ways. Moira had travelled up to Oxford the previous evening to attend a StillPoint weekend conference. I’d arrived home in the early hours of Saturday morning after drinking with school friends in Bath, actually got up reasonably early and enjoyed spending the morning drinking coffee and reading The Guardian. The previous evening, great school mates Becky+Andy had talked of us getting together for lunch at The Watershed (and Becky duly texted to confirm this – although Andy had to get himself from Bath first, arrived very late and then drank only Coke!?). Anyway, I’d already planned to go to the cinema in the afternoon, so it all made for very enjoyable preparation (Andy+Becky went off shopping!).