Requiem for a Village

The film looks at the past of a village in Suffolk. At the centre of the account is an old man who tends the village graveyard. He cleans the stones and passes his days there. As he works, the old village comes back to life in his memory. The rural past appears as an idealised place. The film builds it quietly, without raising its voice. The account stands between documentary and fiction. It comes near the shapes of horror without building suspense. The account does not run time in a straight line; the present and the past fold into each other. Vic Smith appears in David Gladwell’s British film of 1975, sixty eight minutes long.