National Treasure
Throughout the rich history of British cinema, Welsh filmmakers and fans have largely been in the shadow of their English neighbours. But with the release of Prano Bailey-Bond’s debut feature film Censor, Welsh cinema is taking a big step towards standing on its own two feet – Jay Louis Hopkinson maps the country’s journey.
The shadow of the thriving English film industry looms large over Wales. If you are not from the country, itself you may not even realise just how rare it is for film enthusiasts from Wales to see a film of Welsh origin draw the level of excitement that Censor has received. As a result, Bailey-Bond’s film could offer a real turning point for Welsh cinema.
Before moving to London at aged 18 to pursue filmmaking at the London College of Printing, Prano Bailey-Bond was born and grew up in a remote, rural village in mid-Wales named Penuwch and eventually studied performing Arts at Aberystwyth college where her love for horror films grew.
The place she called home boasted little more than a church, a graveyard, a pub and just the one bus a day, which in itself might make for an enticing horror film. With no local cinema to visit, this isolated community offered a perfect environment for a young film enthusiast to consume as many VHS tapes as she could get her hands on, including those dubbed ‘video nasties’ at the centre of both her 2015 short film Nasty and now Censor.
Censor introduces viewers to the world that film censor Enid Baines (Niamh Algar) operates in, through newsreel footage and soundbites of politicians, newscasters and members of the public condemning these videos by transmitting the archaic view that they were causing people in society to commit serious crimes. Under the rule of Margaret Thatcher, Britain was facing uncertainty and panic as the country saw high crime rates, increased unemployment and rising poverty.
The country was going through a period of cultural and political change, and the blame was often shifted onto ‘video nasties’ – low budget, exploitation horror films which featured excessive violence and gore, even if by today’s standards some of these titles may seem tame. The term was originally applied to British horror novels in the 1970s that were deemed too shocking for children, before resurfacing in the early 1980s to describe a horror subgenre onscreen. These criticised films included now iconic horror titles including The Evil Dead, Suspiria and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
There is a sharp social commentary running throughout Censor in relation to these videos, debating whether they really were having a negative impact on British society at the time. High-quality Welsh films are often in short supply, so to find one that is not only expertly made but which also offers stimulating debate provides a welcome change to the landscape in Wales.
The villainization of the video nasties was largely driven by politicians and media outlets at the time, resulting in a moral panic surrounding these videos developed among parents who became increasingly paranoid about what their children may be watching. This panic in the country resulted in an increased need for censorship, which is where we find Enid at the start of the film. Initially she remains unfazed by any nasties assigned to review.
“I just focus on getting it right, don’t really think about anything else,” she tells a fellow censor after watching their latest disturbing assignment, Extreme Coda, which depicts excessive sexual violence. But her approach completely changes when she comes across a particularly unsettling film that brings back raw, painful memories of an incident from her childhood – and from that moment the line between memory and reality starts to blur.
Censor successfully shows how repressed childhood trauma can have a profound impact in adulthood, and through Algar’s fierce performance we see how those memories have shaped the person Enid has become. She is a cold, often emotionless individual who rarely lets anyone in – which may only lead to more loss and pain for her.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that Censor is the most exciting new film to come out of Wales in many years, in horror and beyond. Bailey-Bond’s film has a unique visual style which creates an otherworldly feel – it’s rarely seen in British cinema and virtually never in Welsh cinema, so starkly different to what is often seen from other Welsh filmmakers. The majority of those in Wales often work on small Welsh-language TV shows or documentaries about the country itself – although there’s certainly no lack of promising filmmakers born and raised in Wales.
Terry Jones, who was a Monty Python member and was originally from North Wales, directed arguably two of the greatest comedies in 1975’s Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Monty Python’s Life of Brian in 1979. Shortly after that, Cardiff-born Richard Marquand closed out the original Star Wars trilogy by directing Return of the Jedi – showing between them in the 1970s alone, only a few years before Bailey-Bond was born, that there was unparalleled talent to be found in Wales.
Since the late 70s and early 80s, no one has quite reached the levels of success attained by Jones and Marquand, which is why Bailey-Bond’s journey is so encouraging for Welsh filmmakers and fans. There is an entire generation that has never seen a filmmaker from Wales make such waves in the industry. It had never occurred to me that this was possible for anyone from Wales – it can often feel like there is no real, viable route into filmmaking for us.
Ffilm Cymru Wales, one of Censor’s production companies, also worked on the heartwarming comedy Dream Horse starring Toni Collette and directed by Welsh filmmaker Euros Lyn. TV is also shows signs of promise for Wales, between the brutal yet exhilarating crime series Gangs of London, created by Welsh filmmaker Gareth Evans, and the upcoming Marvel/Disney+ series Hawkeye, helmed by fellow Welshman Rhys Thomas for three episodes.
In the last six years, Wales has also seen the construction and now use of a brand new building to house Pinewood Studios in Cardiff, where the fourth season of BBC’s Sherlock was filmed. The new studio will inevitably boost opportunities for film lovers in Wales aiming to break into the film industry. The ongoing funding, training and education provided by both Ffilm Cymru and Bafta Cymru also offers a sign of positivity – and so despite a difficult past, Bailey-Bond’s gripping horror nods to a promising future for Welsh talent onscreen. The hope and inspiration Censor provides cannot and should not be underestimated.
Jay Louis Hopkinson is a Welsh-born, North Wales-based writer. When he’s not looking for inspiration for his next piece he’s still trying to figure out the plot of Inception.