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Watch: Tryweryn animated film that will be shown Cardiff International Film Festival

By NationCymru

 

An animated film telling the story of Tryweryn is to be screened at the Cardiff International Film Festival at the end of October.

The film by Osian Roberts, who comes from Llanerchymedd on Anglesey, has been selected to form part of the 'Welsh Films' category at the festival.

Osian Roberts studied an Art Foundation course at Coleg Menai, Bangor, before going on to study BA Animation at Manchester Metropolitan University.

He said that he viewed the film festival as an "opportunity to get the story out" of the drowning of Capel Celyn to a wider audience.

“I worked really hard on the film during the pandemic, and I was able to put in the hours because I was spending a lot of time in the house,” Osian Roberts told Golwg360.

“I worked on the film, the animation and so forth, on my own - and then I had someone to help me with the music.

"I'm just really proud that the film was chosen, it's a little surreal really."

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'Don't know the details'

He eventually made the film as his graduate project at the School Of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University.

"The more I was in Manchester, the more I got into Welsh history, and I think I was longing for home," he said.

“So I was researching the history of Wales, and I knew about the history of Capel Celyn history before, but I decided that this is the story I would like to make a film about.

“Everyone knows the story of Capel Celyn, but we don't know the details, so I felt like it was really interesting to go into that.

“I decided to make this film about the history, and then ran with the idea.”

But when he discussed the film with his friends and fellow students at Manchester he realised that the history wasn't as well known as he thought.

“Over the border in England, I noticed when I was pitching the idea at university that not many people had heard the story," he said.

“They knew the wall, but not the story.”

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8 comments

Y Cymro

Why is it that in our schools are not taught about Tryweryn. The Infamous WelshNot campaign or the Blue Books slight among other important historical events that affected Wales throughout the ages. And sure for decades we've had our education system controlled by Whitehall which deliberately opted to teach an Anglocentric version of history rather than the true Welsh history. It's called suppression. Imagine not knowing about both World Wars. The Holocaust. South African Apartheid or the Race Riots of America. These are world important events. And yes those examples are extreme but we're often told to forget history tend to repeat it. So our history is as important. It must be told. If our children's children are not aware that we in Wales were invaded by England, our country annexed, it's laws dissolved with our Welsh language banned. And in the 1400s was legal to murder a Welshman in the English city if Chester. Had England forcibly remove a community from their land for water consumption for Liverpool with all our MPs bar one voting to stop it but we're ignored by the English state. And between the 16th 17th, 18th & 19th centuries had its children physically & mentally abused by the Westminster for speaking their own Welsh language with the WelshNot campaign. The ethnic slight 'Welshing/Welching on a deal.' Some say it's a racing term, but in reality it was used after Welsh mercenaries fighting alongside their English counterparts were often required to murder their own people, so either refused or turned their weapons on the English hence Welshing on deal and how the Welsh were deemed untrustworthy. How English school children were taught by the English state a racist song called 'Taffy is a Welshman, Taffy is a Thief' with the end outcome Taffy being beaten to death. True. I think the main reason why Welsh history is suppressed, is that Whitehall fears an uprising due to the truth being taught . They prefer an ignorant Wales. A Wales that lacks not only confidence in its own ability but is a divided and ashamed. And what they hate the most is the Welsh rediscovering who they really are. A native people with roots firmly planted on this island for over 34,000 yrs. Were Britain's first farmers . Builders of Stonehenge. Have a literary past older than England, Scotland & Ireland that educated Welshmen Saint Patrick, & Saint David among others of note Were the first Christians of Britain & Ireland. Founded the first seat of learning at Côr Tewdws nearly 1000+ before Oxford & Cambridge. This is why. Knowledge is power. Be enlightened not dimmed by Unionism.

Reply
j humphrys

Someone should make posters of the this comment, the parts referring to Wales of course, and paste them in all our towns. Paste responsibly.

Reply
Siarl

My granddaughter aged 10 saw my Cofiwch Dryweryn sticker on the back of my car and told me that she is learning about it in school. So it is being taught, although she is in a Welsh language school, I can’t be sure it’s being taught in English speaking schools.

Reply
Elizabeth Bowen

That is such a good idea. It will help students studying second language Welsh a level. How do I get hold of the film for my son who is studying Welsh a level? Many thanks Liz [email protected]

Reply
HywelE3

YouTube Elizabeth - ‘Tryweryn 2D short animated film’ with the ‘Cofiwch Dryweryn’ logo.

Reply
Elizabeth Bowen

Diolch yn fawr Liz

Reply
Welsh_Sion

The film is embedded in the original article, Elizabeth. :)

Reply
Nathan Lewis Williams

On the closing of Capel Celyn Chapel, September 1963 “Na ato yr Arglwydd i mi roddi treftadaeth fy hynafiaid i ti” - 1 Brenhinoedd 21 A dam, hard hewn from hillside stone Stands tall above the softly rippling, whispering sea  That is Tryweryn Deep and black as a cwm’s last coal mine Cold and still as an empty chapel On Sunday morning For good, for worse, we closed the book -  Had to, you see. “Capel Celyn ar gau” Our chapel an “argae” But the language never mattered to us then. Through kith and kin the rock faced guardians of Wales Saw generations of Celtic dissolution Their grey and hardy slate unmarked by tales Of our small nation’s imminent dilution And as these solemn stones stand, sentinel To the silent suffrage of the waves of Cwm Celyn We at Cilmeri watched the slaughter of Llewelyn And, standing tall, could never save Tryweryn. NLW - 1991

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Replying to Elizabeth Bowen Cancel

That is such a good idea. It will help students studying second language Welsh a level. How do I get hold of the film for my son who is studying Welsh a level? Many thanks Liz [email protected]

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