The Silent Village

The title refers to the Czech village of Lidice which was razed to the ground by the Nazis the male inhabitants were murdered, women and children thrown into concentration camps. In order to tell this dramatic story, Humphrey Jennings chose as location the Welsh mining village Cwmgiedd and he allowed the local population to play a leading role. The Silent Village was beautifully photographed using purely documentary mean, while telling a horrific true story.Jennings chose Cwmgiedd because it displayed a great social, cultural and economic likeness with Lidice. He did not try to make the population look like the population of a different country, but used the local dialect and customs (such as the traditional male-voice choir) as much as possible to create an authentic atmosphere.