‘Geiriau Ffug’ by Ffatri Jam | Video of the Week

This is Video of the Week from Wales Arts Review. We’ll be showcasing some of the best art in Wales with a new video shared every week. From music to drama and everything in between, videos will not be limited by medium. Today we’re featuring ‘Geiriau Ffug’, a new music video from Ffatri Jam.

Our Video of the Week for today is, perhaps, closer to a short film than a music video. Emerging heavy rock band, Ffatri Jam’s first video for their latest single, ‘Geiriau Ffug’ was originally released on Welsh Music Day back in February and was broadcast on BBC Radio 1 where it was recognized as one of the Best Sounds of 2022 BBC Introducing.

As well as introducing new sounds to the Welsh audience, the band’s creative vision clearly extends to something visual as well with them collaborating with S4C’s music platform – ‘Lŵp’ for this film, produced and directed by Andy Pritchard and Aled Wyn Jones for Darlun TV.. This is a period film, and parts are set in the harshness of the First World War – an unexpected subject for a music video, and especially then having a woman as the central protagonist of the story. The choice of location is also interesting – in a trench built 10 years ago based on an original one, where so many Welsh-speaking Welshmen would have lost their lives. And with the video focused on the individual’s internal struggle which is highlighted through a series of flashbacks, it is sure to offer, “an imaginative, realistic experience of the…portrayal of life in the trenches” as the specified on the website of the trench itself.

The short film includes a moving portrait of a story that feeds on the themes of roots, guilt, relationships, mental health, anxiety and the power of the mind. We see a girl returning home following the death of her grandmother with that guilt creeping up clearly as she collects boxes. This in turn turns into an obsession about her family’s history – and the desire to know more. Then, the main character stands in the middle of the battlefield which is now empty, which works cleverly as a portrayal of the past and present, and the relationship between one and the other, as well as working as a metaphor of the main character’s internal struggle arising from the initial guilt.

As a music video it essentially has to break up a lot of the ‘story’ from the film, but by doing so, the audience is given the freedom to decide for themselves what exactly happens in the spaces in between. It’s an experimental video from a band who are already making their mark on Wales’ heavy rock scene.

‘Geiriau Ffug’ is available to stream now.