The IWM Film Archive is the oldest film archive in the UK, holding over 20,000 hours of film, video and digital material and covering the two World Wars and all conflicts involving British or Commonwealth Forces since the start of the Twentieth Century to the present. Our collection also reflects aspects of civilian life in wartime, military life in peacetime, military exercises and operations.
This film is part of Free
Wales
Coal mining, valleys, sheep farming and castles all feature in this highly stereotyped portrait of Wales during the Second World War.
From the collection of:
Overview
A wartime propaganda film focusing on Wales, ‘Cymru’ uses cuts from similar films to paint a morale boosting picture of a nation considered to be a vital cog in Britain’s ‘total war’ machinery. It takes the audience on a journey from coal mines deep in the Welsh valleys to the munitions factory floor, the viewer is left in no doubt of the Welsh people’s great endeavour.
Related
The Greatest Menace We Have Ever Known The Greatest Menace We Have Ever Known
Non-Fiction 1921 1 mins Silent Location: Rhondda
Startling news coverage of striking miners - who allegedly abandon pit ponies to a terrible fate
Phoenix Magazine Phoenix Magazine
Drama-documentary 1970 21 mins Location: Rhondda
Valleys boy escapes as architect to London, where he dresses in black, but returns to Clydach Vale - “a heaven and a hell all rolled into one word, spelled C O A L" – dressed in white.
Coalminer Coalminer
Government sponsored film 1944 15 mins Location: Rhondda
An insight into the life of coal miner Charles Jones from the Rhondda valley, an area famous for it’s coal production.
Worker and War Front No. 6 Worker and War Front No. 6
Cinemagazine 1943 11 mins Location: Rhondda
A wartime magazine made to motivate and inform war workers, commissioned by the Ministry of Information in 1942 and exclusively screened in factories.
China O'Brien: The Reunion China O'Brien: The Reunion
Documentary 2024 60 mins
Cynthia Rothrock, Richard Norton and Keith Cooke reunite three decades on from the groundbreaking martial arts classic.
Women in Action Panel Discussion Women in Action Panel Discussion
Inside Film 2024 28 mins
Action Xtreme - the UK's leading action film studio - hosts this panel discussion with four leading women in action cinema - Soo Cole, Jo Rolison, Jadey Duffield and Ioanna Karavela.
Starve Acre - Exclusive Q&A Starve Acre - Exclusive Q&A
Short interview 2024 24 mins
Daniel Kokotajlo talks to Nia Childs about Starve Acre, his folk horror about a couple digging deep into grief in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales.
Sky Peals - Exclusive Q&A Sky Peals - Exclusive Q&A
Short interview 2024 30 mins
Sky Peals director Moin Hussain and lead actor Faraz Ayub talk to Tomisin Adepeju about their magic realist drama.
Inside the Archive: The Early Films of Michael Powell Inside the Archive: The Early Films of Michael Powell
Documentary 2024 42 mins
Documentary exploring the BFI National Archive’s role in rediscovering and remastering the early films of Michael Powell.
Inside the Archive: The Riviera Revels Inside the Archive: The Riviera Revels
Short documentary 2024 12 mins
Bryony Dixon, curator of silent film at the BFI national archive, explores the origins of a series of comic travelogues, and Michael Powell's involvement in making them.