''Patagonia'' is a 2010 Welsh- Argentine

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

co-written and directed by

Marc Evans Marc Evans (born 1963) is a Welsh director of film and television, whose credits include the films '' House of America'', '' Resurrection Man'' and '' My Little Eye''. Biography Evans was born in 1963 in Cardiff, Wales. He studied for a histor ...

. The story centres on Welsh and

Argentine people Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

connected to "

Y Wladfa Y Wladfa (, "The Colony"), also occasionally Y Wladychfa Gymreig (, "The Welsh Settlement"), refers to the establishment of settlements by Welsh immigrants in Patagonia, beginning in 1865, mainly along the coast of the lower Chubut Valley. I ...

", the Welsh settlement in

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. The film stars several well-known Welsh actors including

Matthew Rhys Matthew Rhys Evans ( ; born 8 November 1974) is a Welsh actor. He is known for playing Kevin Walker in '' Brothers & Sisters'' (2006–2011) and Philip Jennings in ''The Americans'' (2013–2018), for which he received two Golden Globe Awar ...

, Nia Roberts and the singer Duffy. It premiered at the

Seattle International Film Festival The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees. The SIFF runs for more th ...

on 10 June 2010 and had its UK premiere in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

on 4 March 2011. It was selected as the British entry for

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

at the

84th Academy Awards The 84th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2011 in the United States and took place on February 26, 2012, at the Hollywood and Highland Center Theatre in H ...

, but it did not make the final shortlist.

Synopsis

Gwen and Rhys are a Welsh-speaking couple living in

where Rhys works as a photographer and Gwen is employed as a historical interpreter at a local Welsh cultural centre. Gwen is also an aspiring actress and although she periodically attends auditions, she has yet to be hired for a theatrical part. The couple's inability to conceive a child has caused increasing tension between them. Hoping to reinvigorate their relationship, the pair decide to travel together to southern Argentina where Rhys has been commissioned to photograph the historic Welsh chapels in

, a vast windswept landscape which was a destination for Welsh immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While there, they are served by their local Welsh-Argentine guide, Mateo. Meanwhile, an elderly Welsh-Argentine woman named Cerys is planning a trip to Wales to discover the farm where her mother was raised before emigrating to Patagonia during the 1920s. She decides to take along her

agoraphobic Agoraphobia is a mental and behavioral disorder, specifically an anxiety disorder characterized by symptoms of anxiety in situations where the person perceives their environment to be unsafe with no easy way to escape. These situations can ...

young neighbour Alejandro to assist her. In Wales, he finds romance with a local girl, Sissy.

Cast

* Matthew Gravelle as Rhys * Nia Roberts as Gwen *

as Mateo * Marta Lubos as Cerys *

Nahuel Pérez Biscayart Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (, ; born 6 March 1986) is an Argentine actor. A polyglot, he is best known for his role in the French film '' BPM (Beats per Minute)'' (2017), which earned him a César and a Lumières Award. Early life Pérez Biscaya ...

as Alejandro * Duffy as Sissy *

Marco Antonio Caponi Marco Antonio Caponi (born October 9, 1983 in Godoy Cruz, Mendoza Province, Argentina) is an Argentine actor. Biography Marco Antonio Caponi was born in Godoy Cruz, Mendoza Province, Argentina and there he lived the first years of his life, ...

as Diego *

Rhys Parry Jones Rhys Parry Jones is a Welsh actor best known for his role as Llew Matthews in ', in the S4C children's series ' and as Rhacsyn from the children's series ''Rhacsyn a’r Goeden Hud.'' Jones has also featured in episodes of '' EastEnders'', Tra ...

as Martín * Gabriela Ferrero as Eleonara * Marcin Kwaśny as Marc * Radosław Kaim as Kris

Production

Matthew Rhys found out about the role under unusual circumstances. In 2005, he was in Patagonia on horseback with descendants of the region's original Welsh settlers; during the trip, he met director Marc Evans, who was there scouting for locations.

Reception

Following a screening at the 2010

Mill Valley Film Festival The Mill Valley Film Festival is an annual American film festival founded in 1977. History In October 1977, Mark Fishkin, Rita Cahill and Lois Cole organized a three-day film festival. It featured three film tributes, Francis Ford Coppola's ''T ...

, Dennis Harvey of ''Variety'' said "''Patagonia'' unspools two parallel narratives connected only by a historical anomaly .... While its separate parts may not quite add up, they complement each other quite pleasingly." He also notes "Evans nimbly cuts between the two unhurried threads, which form a nice textural contrast in d.p. Robbie Ryan's lensing of the disparate landscapes—one all lush, verdant hills, the other rich in desert hues. Jumping back and forth also helps balance out stories that might have seemed insubstantial if each stood alone." Another critic at Mill Valley, Sura Wood of ''The Hollywood Reporter'', called it an "intermittently diverting road movie, whose alternation between parallel storylines grows tedious over the course of its two-hour running time"; ''Patagonia'' is "somewhat redeemed by gorgeous cinematography of far flung locations not often seen in movies, and fine performances from its cast." ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' described it as "two

road movie A road movie is a film genre in which the main characters leave home on a road trip, typically altering the perspective from their everyday lives. Road movies often depict travel in the hinterlands, with the films exploring the theme of alienatio ...

s for the price of one, running the parallel stories of pilgrims on a search for identity"; the film is "wonderfully shot by Robbie Ryan (''

Fish Tank An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amp ...

'')" and "displays a lyrical sensitivity both to the desert landscapes of Patagonia and to the remote, rain-glazed hills of Wales, and the unlikeliness of their ancient connection (the Welsh settled in Patagonia in 1865) becomes rather moving."

References

External links

Project-Hiraeth – Documents the stories of the Welsh colony in Patagonia, Argentina through film, text and illustration.
* *
In pictures: ''Patagonia'' the movie
from

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

Wales
Podcast of 04 Mar 2011
from Mark Kermode and

Simon Mayo Simon Andrew Hicks Mayo (born 21 September 1958) is an English radio presenter and author who worked for BBC Radio from 1982 until 2022. Mayo has presented across three BBC stations for extended periods. From 1986 to 2001 he worked for Radio ...