Not unlike the distant Welsh valley where it was filmed, this screen adaptation of Bruce Chatwin's novel can be a little too remote at times, but it captures the insular life of an old Welsh farm with vivid austerity. In just under two hours the film spans over eighty years in the lives of identical twin brothers, born into a century which seems to happen somewhere over the distant horizon (their closest involvement with the Second World War is watching the glow on the skyline of Coventry burning during the Blitz). The film offers a challenging vision of continuity between successive generations of a family tied (for better or worse) to the land, but the episodic, hopscotch approach effectively (deliberately?) forestalls any dramatic momentum, and no matter how eloquently expressed the stark isolation of the twins' life together is often cold and depressing.
Review of On the Black Hill
