In a timeless corner of green country where it rains ceaselessly, a solid biblical character, Stanley (Mark Lewis Jones), toils with chores in a dilapidated farm house. Ponderous and weighed down with solitude, he is laboriously building a well.

Suddenly, a young couple crash their car on his doorstep, and he dutifully brings them to his home. Once recovered from the trauma of the crash, Sara (Annes Elwy) and Iwan (Dyfan Dwyfor)’s own dramas creep into Stanley’s world. The couple want to stay and hide out in Stanley’s remote idyll, but what are they running from?

THE PASSING is a slow burning, supernatural tale set in a remote Welsh mountain valley. In the Welsh language, it comes from the creative team behind acclaimed BBC crime series “Hinterland”.
Ghosts of tragedy linger, and with subtle clues from director Gareth Bryn, we understand that Sara and Iwan cannot remain without paying a high price, yet it may be harder still to navigate their way out of the isolated wilderness surrounding the farm.

… a dreamy mystery and alluring resonance carry us into the screen and beyond …

There are echoes of quiet beauty in the cinematography of the natural world and Stanley at one with his simple routines, the magnetism of observation reminiscent of the study of Jake Williams in Ben Rivers’ TWO YEARS AT SEA. What a shame this film was not also shot in 16mm! Mark Lewis Jones really holds us with his sparse language and deliberate distance. His powerful presence and brooding silences texture the pace and tension of the film, and soundtrack its heartbeat. The hauntological atmosphere and Bryn’s connection to place and the past bring to mind echoes of Carol Morley’s THE FALLING, where we get an eerie sense of connectivity to green consciousness, and where past emotions are held by the trees and natural world. In THE PASSING, loss and isolation remain present in the fabric of the house.

What really makes THE PASSING stand out is Gareth Bryn’s flair for visual composition and a firmly rooted intention. The sense of place he creates for screenwriter Ed Talfan’s script has a dreamy mystery and alluring resonance which carries us into the screen and beyond.

THE PASSING has its Welsh premiere on the opening night of the Wales One World (WOW) festival in Aberystwyth on 10th March. Look out for an interview with producer/screenwriter Ed Talfan on this site very soon!