Unflinching portrayal of a dysfunctional lass facing motherhood

Having been in Blaenau Ffestiniog last week, it was interesting to see it turning up as the main location for Effi O Blaenau (15), a Welsh-language film showing at the Irish Film Institute from tomorrow.

I only saw the town from the perspective of a tourist. In this graphic film, we see what lives are lived behind the grim doors of the unkempt estate where Effi (Leisa Gwenllian) lives.

After an exploitative encounter with a married soldier she finds herself pregnant. She goes to great lengths to track him down. When she finds him, we expect her to vent her rage at him, but she doesn’t. In this as in many other scenes, she alternates between passionate outbursts and moments of reflection where her better self takes over.

A hard-living, hard-drinking young woman, Effi is the least likely candidate for motherhood one could imagine, but she now becomes ‘broody,’ even accepting a pram from the boyfriend she’s been unfaithful to, Kev (Owen Alun). He stands by her even when she tells him the baby she’s carrying isn’t his.

Thereafter things go wrong. At a certain point the film moves from being just about Effi (who’s in every scene) to the larger subject of Wales’ over-stretched medical services.

You might feel the need to put your hands in your ears for some of the explosive language she uses. Or rather your hands over your eyes – you probably won’t understand the Welsh dialect. The subtitles, of course, are in English.

It’s directed by Marc Evans, who reboots a one-woman play by Gary Owens based on the Greek tragedy Iphigenia. It’s already the highest-grossing Welsh language film of all time.

Though Effi’s tongue is foul, she has – deep down – a good heart. This becomes most apparent in the film’s last quarter, where she forms an unlikely friendship with an overweight neighbour she’s been insulting up to now.

No character in the film is one dimensional. Though the neighbour and her Nan roar at her at times, they’re ‘there’ for her when she needs them. And though Kev is generous, he doesn’t baulk at the idea of a ticket to Easy Street when a medical pay-out is mooted.

Effi is the most complex character of all. She changes her mind about telling the married soldier’s wife about him, about the idea of having an abortion, and about two other major issues which I won’t reveal. Evans is at his best in portraying these varying vicissitudes in her personality.

Nothing happens as expected in this strangely beguiling film. When it started I thought we were in for a kind of Welsh Trainspotting, but by the end I realised I’d seen the cathartic odyssey of an emotionally-charged tearaway from excess to enlightenment.

“Tough place,” she says of her decrepit home town at the end, “You either sink or swim here.” Which will she do? You’ll have to wait until the very last frame to find out.