Rhosyn a Rhith

I ran across this film at a video store in Portland, Oregon in 1988 or '89. I'm passably familiar with Welsh, but I learned from a northerner and the southern (I assume) accents made it tricky for me to follow without the subtitles.

A depressed mining town seems like a strange setting for a comedy, and there's a strong strain of melancholy through the visuals, the music and the overall air of the cast. The actual storyline in which a projectionist and an ice-cream girl (American that I am, I'd never heard of ice cream in a theater) try to save their jobs is fairly clichéd, although the repeated setbacks aren't as predictable as they might have been. But the real joy is watching the two as they turn each other's lives around.

Trefor (Dafydd Hywel) has two boys who live with his ex-wife and her new husband. The pair are broker than he is and continually need money, which he always produces no matter the toll it takes on him. Mona (Iola Gregory) takes care of her irresponsible daughter's baby girl while Mama is out presumably entertaining herself. The low-key romance that develops between these two good-hearted, taken-advantage-of veterans of life is what really makes this film worth watching.