The Politics of the Welsh Language and Sounds in The Silent Village (1943, dir. Humphrey Jennings)

Abstract

The Silent Village (Humphrey Jennings, 1943) is a semi-documentary based on the infamous massacre of Lidice, perpetrated in June 1942 in retaliation for the assassination of SS-Obergruppenführer Heydrich by Czechoslovak resistance fighters. Instead of Czechoslovakia, the film takes place in the mining village of Cwmgiedd in South Wales, where Welsh was the majority language. Although only a minority of the UK population spoke Welsh, Jennings decided to keep most dialogues untranslated for two reasons: to lend the film “authenticity”, and because it might suggest that it was Czech. However, considering Welsh through the sole prism of its proximity with Czech would be missing part of the film’s point. In fact, The Silent Village can be read as containing myriad political messages expressed through the treatment of the Welsh language and the sounds associated with the community of Cwmgiedd: resistance to the German enemy, but also the struggle for linguistic and cultural diversity and against the policy of linguistic assimilation implemented by the British government.