Hedd Wyn

‘Hedd Wyn’ is a 1992 Welsh anti-war biopic. Ellis Humphrey Evans, a farmer’s son and poet living at Trawsfynydd in the Meirionydd countryside of upland Wales, competes for the most coveted prize of all in Welsh Poetry – that of the chair of the National Eisteddfod, which in August 1917 was due to be held in Birkenhead (one of the rare occasions when it was held in England). After submitting his entry, under his bardic name “Hedd Wyn” (“Blessed Peace”) Evans later departs from Meirionydd by train to join the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in Liverpool, despite his initial misgivings about the war. Ellis is sent to fight in the trenches of Flanders. ‘Hedd Wyn’ was the first Welsh-language film to be nominated for an Oscar.