Based on Ronald Blythe's acclaimed oral-history book Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village, Peter Hall’s extraordinary long-unseen film Akenfield offers a lyrical yet authentic depiction of British pastoral life. Now newly restored in 2K by the BFI National Archive, it will be released on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time in a Dual Format Edition on 25 July 2016. The discs are packed with special features including a making-of documentary and interviews with cast, crew and author Ronald Blythe.
Akenfield tells the story of a farming family who have lived for generations in the bucolic Suffolk village of the film’s title. Real-life local farmhand Garrow Shand gives a compelling naturalistic central performance, in three roles, as farmhand Tom Rouse, his father and grandfather – a lineage which has experienced hardship, happiness and love, and struggled with the pressures of mechanisation, two world wars and shifting social mores.
A profoundly romantic work of sublime poetic realism, Akenfield boasts compelling performances from its cast of non-professional actors (drawn from the living communities of several Suffolk villages) and a sweeping, rhapsodic orchestral score composed by Michael Tippett (Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli).
The influences of this quietly dramatic, humorous and deeply moving film, about the family ties that bind and the desire to escape deep roots, can still be felt in the lyrical, personal work of other directors such as Terence Davies and Mark Cousins. The trailer is above.
