STAYING (AROS MAE)
DIRECTED BY ZILLAH BOWES
UK // 2020
19 MINS
Ruth, a newly divorced gallery manager selling her city home, sees a video of a sheepdog, Mick, for sale. She visits farmer Huw and his wife Megan in the remote hills.
Brief Encounters Jury comments:
The Jury would also like to give a special mention to Zillah Bowes’ ‘Aros Mae’ for the sensitivity and complexity of her storytelling.
In ‘Aros Mae’, Bowes immerses us in the quiet and idyl world of Mid Wales, a world devoid of stereotypical heroes or villains and instead populated by three-dimensional characters all dealing with their own particular inner struggles and repressions.
Bowes’ empathy for her characters is evident in her use of image and sound to weave a naturalistic filmic tapestry that suspends judgements and instead, encourages exploration and questions.
Reflective Encounters
“In her narrative debut, director Zillah Bowes explores human connection and the desire to belong. Staying (Aros Mae) follows the recently divorced Ruth (Lisa Jen Brown) who, after losing sense of herself, yearns for a new life, a drastic change, something that brings her a connection she so desperately craves. The story unfolds quietly, leaning on a standout performance from Brown who brings both intensity and vulnerability to her role. Bowes refrains from the use of heavy dialogue, opting for the characters to unveil their desires through action and subtext.
Staying (Aros Mae) is a prime example of a character-driven story, Ruth’s crisis might be revealed through phone calls but her thoughts, feelings and personal dilemmas are eloquently expressed by Brown. She effortlessly portrays a woman struggling with new-found freedom who inevitably finds herself trapped in a web of choices. The narrative explores the weight of relationships on individual identity. Cinematically, Staying (Aros Mae) reminds audiences to consider the unsaid words, pacing and use of silence, the camera working in unison with Brown to showcase complex emotions. The beauty of Staying (Aros Mae) is in how the camera elevates the performances and how they work together to express a sense of feeling and connection.”
— Vithiya Murugadas
Filmmaker Q&A
A Q&A with filmmakers from the Sparks Fly programme at Encounters Film Festival 2021.
Filmmakers - Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke (Red Aninsri), Danech San (Sunrise in my Mind) and Zillah Bowes (Staying)
Hosted by Ren Scateni, Encounters Head of Programme.
Director’s Statement
Just before I wrote ‘Staying’, I was artist-in-residence in the Elan Valley near Rhayader, Mid Wales. I’d begun to know my neighbours, a remote community of traditional hill farmers - some still gathering sheep on horseback - whose livelihood and identity were under threat from Brexit, climate crisis and economic uncertainty. Several had encouraged me to photograph them, which I’d started to do for a later project.
I set ‘Staying’ in this community as a fictional story, aiming to represent them as faithfully as possible. I’d previously lived in the mountains further north, where I’d seen a phone video posted by a farmer selling his sheepdog. The video brought me right into the moment he’d taken it, his breath misting in the valley. Since then I’d wanted to use this image somehow.
It became the starting point for ‘Staying’: a woman sees a video of a dog for sale and travels on a whim to find it, prompted by a need to flee pain in her life. We decided to cast local people, in which my producer, Jack Thomas-O’Brien at Sixteen Films, was experienced from Ken Loach’s films.
A hill farmer skilled with dogs, Steve Lewis, committed to the project at an early stage. We filmed on his farm with all his animals, including the sheepdog ‘Mick’. I cast another farmer and his wife, Stella and Kerena Pugh, to play ‘Huw’ and ‘Megan’, along with other members of the community. Only the main character ‘Ruth’ was played by an actor, Welsh actor/singer Lisa Jen Brown.
I wanted to create naturalness in the performances, aided by the cast being familiar with the world, my time getting to know them and the flexibility of cinematographer Robbie Ryan. As well as the connection between Ruth and Huw, ‘Staying’ is about nature and its working on inner pain. It’s from Ruth’s perspective as she navigates a change in life, precipitated by meeting Huw.
The film exposes a rare moment someone is offered to change. I wanted to track Ruth’s emotions using nature images and sounds - how they carry her. ‘Aros Mae’, the song at the end and film’s title, is a 19th century Welsh poem by Ceiriog, describing how the mountains remain as generations come and go. It evokes an ancient connection – our human connection – with nature and the land, which Ruth re-discovers.
Filmmaker Bio
Zillah is a Welsh/English writer and director. She trained at the National Film and Television School in the UK, where she was awarded the Kodak Scholarship, and has made films as a director and cinematographer which have been shown worldwide.
Her debut as a director, ‘Small Protests’, was nominated for a Grierson Award and won the Current Short Cuts Vimeo Award and Best Short Documentary at the London Independent Film Festival.
Zillah has directed documentaries for BBC, Channel 4 and online, and collaborated with Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed including ‘Understanding’, which was shown at SXSW.
As a cinematographer, her feature films include ‘Enemies of Happiness’, which won the World Cinema Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival. In 2020, she won a John Brabourne Award from the UK’s Film and TV Charity. ‘Staying (Aros Mae)’ is her first fiction film as a writer/director.