It’s been likened to Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain, but a new ilm about the relationship between two sheep farmers on the desolate Yorkshire moors looks set to become a classic in its own right

INTERVIEW

WORDS: ADAM DUXBURY PHOTOGRAPHY: VICTOR HENSEL-COLE

If it feels a bit reductive to call God’s Own Country the British answer to Brokeback Mountain, it hasn’t stopped film critics drawing parallels between the two films in their (overwhelmingly) glowing reviews.

And to be honest, likening Francis Lee’s directorial debut to Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning cowboy flick is understandable: both films are about a couple of young sheep farmers overcoming adversity to find love in a bleak-but-beautiful rural setting. And while there are some knowing and affectionate nods to Brokeback in this film, that’s where the similarities end.

God’s Own Country stars Josh O’Connor as Johnny, a young Yorkshire farmer struggling to carry the weight of his family’s business and who frequently turns to booze and casual sex to cope. When his father hires Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu), a Romanian migrant worker, to help out during the lambing season, Johnny is immediately hostile towards him, but an intense relationship develops nonetheless.

As we sit down with Alec and Josh to discuss the film, I bring up the comparisons to Brokeback. “OK, it’s a love story but it depends how you tell it,” says Alec, who is from Romania himself and is making his British acting debut in the film. “Every love story has been told a million times but they’re two different films, two different aesthetics, the characters are not similar at all.”