Francis Lee God's Own Country

Francis Lee God's Own Country

Cast: Josh O'Connor, Alec Secareanu, Gemma Jones
Director: Francis Lee
Genre: Drama, Romance
Rated: MA15+
Running Time: 104 Minutes

Synopsis: Spring. Yorkshire. Johnny Saxby (24) carries the weight of his family's dilapidating sheep farm alone. His formidable grandmother Deirdre (70) is now too old to work the land, whilst his father Martin (50), once a capable farmer, struggles in the aftermath of a stroke. Socially and geographically isolated and overwhelmed by the responsibility, yet too proud to accept any help, Johnny numbs his frustration with drink, dope and casual sex.

Against Johnny's wishes, his family insist on hiring a farm labourer to help with the week of lambing. Gheorghe (27) arrives, a Romanian migrant worker keen for some real farming after a string of menial, degrading jobs. They are sent up onto the isolated moors, where they must sleep in a primitive stone shelter whilst they lamb the sheep. Gheorghe works hard, slowly winning Johnny's begrudging respect with his skill and care for the animals, as they work silently in the harsh conditions.

This growing chemistry between them results in an intense, instinctive sexual encounter. The next day they go back to work as if nothing had happened, then explore each other sexually again that night. Whereas his previous sexual encounters have been purely functional, Gheorghe is awakening something new and exciting in Johnny.

With both lads struggling to come to terms with what their time on the moor really meant and what they want from each other, Martin suffers another severe stroke and Johnny rushes to hospital to see him. With the future of the farm, his father's life and his fledgling first relationship all hanging in the balance, Johnny feels more isolated and powerless than ever. Sent back to the farm on their own by Deirdre to tend to the animals, Johnny and Gheorghe slip into an unspoken domestic life. But soon Gheorghe's contract will come to an end...

Deirdre returns to the farm to collect some things for Martin and makes it clear that Martin will now be completely incapacitated. The pressure mounts for Johnny and he drags Gheorghe to the pub. Old habits die-hard however and after several pints, Gheorghe discovers Johnny drunkenly having sex with another man in the pub toilets. Gheorghe's trust has been broken, and he decides to leave the farm and Johnny.

Johnny returns to work, trying to overcome the pain, longing and uncertain emotions, which consume him about what he has done to Gheorghe. He realises he could work the land and keep the farm going, but he doesn't want to do it alone any more.

For the first time in his life, Johnny leaves Yorkshire to find Gheorghe in Scotland, where he's picked up work on a potato farm. Exhausted from his long journey, Johnny eventually finds Gheorghe, but will he find the words to convince him to come back?

God's Own Country
Release Date: August 31st, 2017

About The Production

Writer-Director Francis Lee's background, inspirations and aspirations

'Having grown up on the remote Pennine hills in West Yorkshire I have long been obsessed with this barren landscape of my ancestry, as well as by the people who cling to it, extracting a livelihood from a few unyielding acres. Throughout my childhood what I didn't realise was the unique emotional pull land has on people who live and work on it.

'This only became apparent when I left Yorkshire to study acting in London. My experience of growing up in isolated, rural Yorkshire made me wonder what else the rest of the world had to offer me. Therefore the springboard for this project was wanting to explore what might have happened if I'd have stayed in my local community, if I had worked on the land, if I had met someone there I liked.

'At the heart of God's Own Country is Johnny, who has had to shut down emotionally to ensure the family farm's survival. His world is turned upside down by the arrival of Gheorghe, a Romanian migrant worker, drafted in to help with the lambing season.

'I wanted to tell a heartfelt but stark love story. I wanted to capture those feelings of both trepidation and joy that come from the possibilities of something beginning. I want to see Johnny and Gheorghe start to fall for each other, investigating how they will deal with each other's differences. I wanted to explore those moments that two people share when they truly start to engage with one another, subtly pinpointing the struggles at the centre of their characters. Whether gay or straight, we all know what it feels like to fall in love – how difficult this can be – particularly if the circumstances are unyielding.

'I wanted to explore what this encounter might mean to someone who has not only been socially and geographically isolated but who has had to close off to any emotional life, within a traditional working class community, where you're too physically tired at the end of a gruelling day to -investigate' yourself; where family and duty come before anything else and no one cares who you're sleeping with as long as the beasts are fed and the land tended. Given this world, would Johnny be able to access how he feels for Gheorghe? Would Gheorghe have the patience and ability to facilitate Johnny's emotional journey? Would they be able to live and love in the harsh reality of contemporary farming life? Would Johnny finally find happiness?

'Through God's Own Country I wanted to explore these themes of first love, isolation, relationships, family, duty, landscape and ultimately the sense of belonging to this very specific place."

Working authentically with the actors…

'Given the film is set and entirely shot in the landscape where I grew up and where my family still work and live, it was critically important for me to tell this story in the most authentic way possible.

'I rehearsed extensively with the actors, not just on their characters and the emotional journey they each embark on, but also the daily physical work they encounter. Both the lead actors worked solidly on farms for weeks in preparation - dealing with all aspects of livestock and land management. Everything they had to physically do as part of the story, they learned to do from farmers in the landscape where the film is shot - the lambing, the animal medicating, the skinning of lambs, the dry stone walling, the cheese making, the fencing - everything was investigated fully until it became second nature to the actors. I wanted them to move and feel as part of the landscape their characters live and work on.

Therefore everything in the film is done for real by the actors, no substitute was ever used (and this included the piss!). Alec Secareanu (Gheorghe) was personally very affected by working with the livestock, in particular birthing lambs, and it was incredible how he managed his own perceptions whilst brilliantly playing a pragmatic farm labourer.

'As a result of this work the actors developed very strong bonds with the farmer whose farm we used for the main location. This bond was very important in a number of ways and it enabled the actors to get a very personal perspective and understanding of the physical, emotional and logistic issues within this community.

'On top of the emotional and psychological transformation, the two lead actors also went through a big physical transformation. It was important to me that Johnny (Josh O'Connor) was very much the embodiment of an under resourced Yorkshire hill farmer, someone who physically works every day in the cold, rain and wind and burns every calorie he consumes. Josh dropped a considerable amount of weight to achieve this idea.

'I was also aware of the challenges of building a big emotional story. To help facilitate this I shot the film in a linear, chronological way. Allowing each scene to impact on the next emotionally, like building blocks within the story. This was particularly challenging but ultimately I believe it has paid off, given the strong, emotional arc that is depicted at the heart of the film."

…and with the production team

'I was insistent that the -set' and costumes were as authentic as possible. Anything we used on location had to be part of the farm and environment - -found props' - in fact a good number of the props came from my Dad's farm 10 minutes away. The costumes could only be bought in shops that the characters would geographically have access to, so Sian Jenkins, our costume designer, was tasked with buying the principles' clothes from within Keighley town centre.

'The visual impact of the film came from an intensive collaboration with DP Joshua James Richards. We worked out that the camera should -sit' with the characters, not allowing them to hide from our gaze. The camera movement should reflect not just the landscape but also the emotional state of the characters - we developed an intense, unrelenting style which I believe fits this story perfectly. Through lighting, we wanted to depict the -change' Gheorghe brings with him into this world - how he -alters' the environment, bringing his own sense of -light' into this dark, unemotional world.

'From the very initial stages of this film, I knew sound was critical for me. I knew I wanted to work with the sound and picture at the same time during the editing process. For me, sound is utterly as, if not sometimes more important than picture. I built a soundscape of the natural sounds - winds were carefully orchestrated, specific bird song strategically placed, sheep noises individually selected, fire sounds were to be reflective - everything was done sonically to underpin this stark and brutal world. I worked with the idea of texturing and building the atmosphere - almost like using the wind sounds as a chorus - to contrast with the deep, emotional story set in this unrelenting location.

'Making this film in an unforgiving landscape with the constant battle of unpredictable weather (snow, rain, bright sun all in a day), animals and a huge emotional thrust was a challenge, but I hope that my ingrained experience of this world as well as my insistence on precision has produced a unique, heartfelt and authentic film."

Financing

The film was financed in development and production by the BFI and Creative England with National Lottery funding Met Film Post and Paul Webster's PW Pictures completed the financing.

Producers are Manon Ardisson and Jack Tarling for Magic Bear and Shudder Films respectively, with Diarmid Scrimshaw (Tyrannosaur) and Anna Duffield (Donkeys) as executive producers for Inflammable Films, Mary Burke for the BFI and Celine Haddad for Creative England.

The BFI and Creative England use National Lottery funding to develop and support diverse, bold and distinctive filmmaking, to nurture new voices in British cinema working across the UK and back the creation of films that enrich UK film culture and definite the UK and the stories we tell in the 21st century.

God's Own Country joins other highly anticipated films supported by the BFI including William Oldroyd's Lady Macbeth, Andrew Haigh's Lean on Pete, Saul Dibb's Journey's End, Rungano Nyoni's I Am Not A Witch, Jim Hosking's Evening with Luff Linn, Clio Barnard's Dark River, Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here, Andy Serkis' Breathe, Sophie Fiennes' Grace Jones - The Musical of My Life, Gurinder Chadha's Viceroy's House, Nick Park's Early Man, Paddy Considine's Journeyman, Matt Holness's Possum, Lucy Cohen's Fly Away, Michael Pearce's Beast, Peter Mackie Burns' Daphne, Alex Taylor's Spaceship, Hope Dickson Leach's The Levelling, Thomas Clay's Fanny Lye Delivr'd, Haifaa Al Mansour's A Storm in the Stars, Mercedes Grower's Brakes, and Pete Travis' City of Tiny Lights.

Films supported by the BFI and recently released include last year's Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or winner I, Daniel Blake directed by Ken Loach and the Jury Prize award winning American Honey by filmmaker Andrea Arnold, Amma Asante's A United Kingdom, Ben Wheatley's Free Fire, Roger Mainwood's Ethel & Ernest, Colm McCarthy's The Girl With All The Gifts, Jim Hosking's The Greasy Strangler, John Michael McDonagh's War on Everyone, James Spinney and Peter Middleton's Notes on Blindness, Sean McAllister's A Syrian Love Story and Andrew Haigh's Berlin award-winning and BAFTA and Oscar® nominated 45 Years.

God's Own Country
Release Date: August 31st, 2017