By Zoë Brigley, Siân Melangell Dafydd, and Kristian Evans
Homes That Float
Flooding in Wales is the subject of a new film, Homes that Float, by Hanan Issa and Ruslan Pilyarov. An important intervention, the film was created in response to Storm Dennis and Storm Burt. The storms caused widespread flooding in Pontypridd and across the south Wales valleys, to the extent that many children in the stricken area have been described as suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), experiencing real fear when it rains, according to the BBC.
Hywel Griffiths’ recent article for Modron commented on the history of flooding in the Rhondda valley. Griffiths looked at available records dating back 60 years, revealing how the land itself holds clues to the river’s behaviour before that date and how literary sources can prove to be a rich archive of eco-poetics as well as evidence, from newspapers, diaries and personal letters, estate records, school logbooks, and poetry. He traces a line back to 1874 of a community in fear and the memory of water-rising held by the local inhabitants. This is a recurring theme in Griffiths’ poetry. Elsewhere, in a poem for Modron about a flood in Trefechan in 1886, he writes that “places sometimes grow a layer of memory / that spans generations” (translation: Siân Melangell Dafydd).
Contributing to the conversation around the floods, Homes that Float is an incisive piece of cultural commentary, bearing witness to environmental changes impacting Welsh communities. Hanan Issa in the role of National Poet of Wales has already proven to be a bardd in the best Welsh community tradition. Take Issa’s poem ‘Do the birds still sing in Gaza?’, which expressed the views of many in Wales, including the Senedd, which in November 2022, “endorsed a ceasefire […], one of the first parliaments in the world to do so”. Tragically, the genocide continues, but Issa’s poem reminds us that poetry can be a voice of moral integrity. In addition, Issa has written to commemorate or respond to Welsh institutions and concerns such as the NHS (‘The Unsung‘), the Welsh soccer team (‘The Crowd Gathers‘), Dylan Thomas (‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales‘), COVID-19 (‘The Trees Gather What We Have Lost‘) and Alzheimer’s Disease (‘Hold You‘). One prime concern however has been the environment, with Issa platforming ecological issues such as manmade changes to landscapes in Wales and Iraq (‘Beauty and Blood’), and ‘Global Warming‘.
Ruslan Pilyarov is a graduate from the Documentary Film and Television course at the University of South Wales, whose films include Cardiff: Living on the Streets, and Strangers in a Strange Land. One of their notable projects is Colours of Cardiff, a 360-degree virtual story featuring the diverse people of Cardiff. With Pilyarov’s previous work in mind, there is a similar feeling at the beginning of Homes That Float, as we meet a sufferer of the flood. Jeffrey Baxter of Storyville Books gives an account of the disastrous consequences for the town and expresses frustrations with people “looking for simple solutions” to the flooding crisis. There is a non-judgmental and unfiltered feeling to the presented testimony, seemingly typical of Pilyarov’s style.
Issa’s poem is narrated over images of the river, now a threat, as well as pictures of the devastating impact to local businesses. Issa sets up a contrast between the dry seed and the wet flood, pondering how food, memories, legacies can be stored in a world where “we need more names for homes that float.” Issa recalls the mudhif of Iraqi Marsh Arabs, traditionally houses made of reeds (see this book), which represents the precariousness and perseverance of what we build in a world besieged by ecological crisis.
It could not be more important for art to process the real impacts of extreme weather, and just as poets in Wales historically have commemorated and interrogated significant moments of communal crisis and transformation, so in our current time, it is vitally important to mark these overwhelming events like the floods in the valleys. Perhaps, as a result, our communities can consider what possibilities we can find beyond ineffective solutions complained about in the film.
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