Based on Gary Owen’s much lauded and widely performed monodrama, Iphigenia in Splott, ‘Effi o Blaenau’ is director Marc Evans’ cinematic interpretation set against the wide open landscapes of North Wales. The film follows Effi, a young woman desperate to escape a town where the pubs are closed, the jobs have vanished and her grandmother works night shifts in the local chip shop just to get by. A chance encounter in a Llandudno nightclub with injured soldier Lee, played by Tom Rhys Harries, briefly opens a door to something better. For a moment, Effi glimpses a life she never imagined. The reality that follows is far tougher. As she faces the future as a single, unemployed mother-to be, Effi’s story exposes a stark social crisis: a system with too few maternity wards, too few midwives and too many impossible choices made out of necessity rather than care. Leisa Gwenllian gives a searing performance as Effi, evoking condemnation and sympathy in equal measures.

Welsh Connections

• Director: Marc Evans
• Producer / Executive Producer: Branwen Cennard, Cat Cooper, Gwenllian Gravelle
• Cast: Leisa Gwenllian, Tom Rhys Harries, Owen Alun, Nel Rhys Lewis, Mared Llywelyn, Sion Eifon
• Filming Locations: Blaenau Ffestiniog, Caernarfon, Port Talbot
• Funding: Creative Wales, S4C
• Other Welsh Connections: Narrative – Adaptation of ‘Iphigenia yn Sblot’