31 July - 2 August 2020
Sleep furiously

31 July-2 August: available to watch online from this page
Friday 31 July, 6.30pm: communal viewing
Friday 31 July, 8:30pm: Gideon Koppel in conversation with Margaret Salmon 

Dir. Gideon Koppel
2008, UK,  1hr  34mins, English, cert U
SDH subtitles available

Sleep Furiously offers a meditative study of the rhythms of life in a small hill-farming community in Trefeurig, mid-Wales, a place where director Gideon Koppel’s parents, both refugees, found a home. 

Of the film Gideon has said ‘In a farming community, seasonal change and cyclical movements are very much part of life, in quite a visceral and practical way – much more so than measurements of time. So while filming, ritual, rhythm and cyclical movements were important to me and it was then a question of finding ways to translate those sensitivities to pictures and sounds.’

Koppel’s film also depicts a way of life that is changing, as small-scale agriculture which characterised the area is disappearing and the last generation who inhabited a pre-mechanised world is dying out. The local school is about to close, bus services have been withdrawn, congregations are dwindling. Wider patterns of change point to uncertain futures for remote communities such as Trefeurig, but at no point does the film lose sight of the quiet power of individual encounters and routines, as we follow John Jones for instance, patiently driving his mobile library through the village lanes.

WATCH THE TRAILER

Gideon Koppel in Conversation with Margaret Salmon

Sleep Furiously film still © Gideon Koppel 2008
Sleep Furiously film still © Gideon Koppel 2008

FURTHER LINKS

Watch Sleep Furiously 
If you missed our online screening, the full film is available to rent via BFI Player

Read Johnathan Romney’s review of the film, May 2009
 
Read Peter Bradshaw’s review of the film, May 2009
 
Watch Gideon Koppel’s audience Q&A at Bertha DocHouse in April 2015, hosted by Elhum Shakerifar
 

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This online screening was part of Film FeelsConnected, a UK-wide cinema season, supported by the National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network.  Explore all films and events at filmfeels.co.uk