Solomon and Gaenor

The Welsh valleys, 1911. Solomon (Gruffudd) is the son of a Jewish family which sells drapery and glazing. Times are hard for the pit community, not least in the household where Solomon strikes up a conversation with Gaenor (Roberts), whose father may soon be on strike with the rest of the miners. Knowing she's from chapel stock, Solomon poses as 'Sam Livingston', son of an English engineer, and the pair soon find themselves spending afternoons together in a hayloft. Eventually the strain of the pretence tells. A familiar theme, but the film's modest accomplishment is to place it in unfamiliar terrain. It all starts to go awry, however, when Gaenor's pregnancy is discovered, and soon melodramatic tribulation is being piled on hackneyed adversity.