Sleeping furiously in Trefeurig

The film was premiered at The Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Gideon Koppel shares his thoughts on his first film about a declining farming region and what should be done to help the local community.

Now, after almost a year travelling the world from the premiere at The Edinburgh International Film Festival, to Locarno, Vancouver, Mexico City and many other cities, it feels as if 'sleep furiously' is finally returning home.

But that homecoming has a sadness, because now Trefeurig no longer has a school and the school buildings, which were the heart and soul of the community, are under threat of becoming yet another money making property development.

So, I would like to make a personal appeal to the influential people at Ceredigion County Council and the Welsh Assembly Government. Please hold back from making short-sighted decisions to sell the Trefeurig school buildings.

...I hold a very deep affection for the people and landscape of the area. Gideon Koppel

Consider the immeasurable values of community life which, as observed in the film 'sleep furiously', have heartened and moved hundreds of thousands of people across the globe.

That is to say, with the extraordinary international attention 'sleep furiously' has received this issue is no longer just a local matter - the eyes of the world are now looking on.

As I hope the film makes evident, I hold a very deep affection for the people and landscape of the area.

I came to Trefeurig for holidays with my parents at the age of eight and then we moved there permanently about four years later.

Delicious

My strongest and fondest memories were going to 'work' at Trawsnant, well hardly 'work', I used run behind Edwin Hughes as he walked the bank to check on the sheep, or sit on the tractor as he or his son Merfyn cut the hay.

Most of all I can remember looking forward to the tea breaks when Mrs Hughes [Eleanor] prepared her famously delicious bread and butter.

So I didn't go to Trefeurig School but went straight to Penglais Comprehensive.

I wasn't a 'good' pupil - spending much of my time hanging out with friends in The Cabin (cafe).

But these were memorable and formative years - experiencing the first pangs of love, the first kiss and afternoons talking, listening to music by Caravan, Camel and for the more meditative moments, Al Stewart.

I keep on being asked in interviews what was the starting point for 'sleep furiously'?

Library van

It is a difficult question to answer because it was a combination of many fragmented memories of childhood and feelings I have for the place.

But I needed to find a way of translating these images and memories into a palatable form - 'a project' that could be recognised by financing bodies and commissioners.

In this sense, my idea for a film could only become a 'project' when one afternoon I watched the yellow library van meander down the road on the other side of the valley.

I remembered that once a month John Jones drives the library van through the Trefeurig community, from farm to farm, collecting and delivering books.

He parks his van in the same spot and is visited by one or more members of each household - they talked about the books, about the times, and reflected on life in the community.

The library van was both literally and metaphorically a vehicle of stories - and in that sense became the narrative spine for the film 'sleep furiously'.