LOST FOR WORDS (PG)
Director: Hannah Papacek Harper/2025/UK,France/93mins
Theatr Gwaun is thrilled to start this new collaboration with WOW Film Festival as part of WOW Around Wales, the year-round programme bringing bold, thought-provoking cinema to communities across Wales.
Kicking off this partnership, we present Lost for Words, a poetic documentary inspired by the award-winning book The Lost Words. Journeying through the UK’s seasons, the film celebrates our bond with nature, weaving together the voices of children, elders, artists, and scientists.
What does connecting with nature mean to you? Lost for Words takes asks this question of many dwellers of the UK landscape. The film leads us on an adventure through the seasons, from the most remote corners of the country to museum archives and scientific laboratories. Children, elders, scientists, artists, and activists speak out, sharing their knowledge and emotional connection with nature. Their voices urge us to reflect on our own relationship with the natural world around us.
The story begins in 2007, with the disappearance of nature-related words from the Oxford Junior Dictionary. These lost words, such as “acorn,” “otter,” “bluebell,” and “dandelion,” serve as a guide throughout the film. Starting from this question of: ‘How can we care for something we cannot name?’, the film opens up bigger and bigger interrogations about how we can rebuild our connection to the natural world.
Based on ‘The Lost Words’ by Robert McFarlane and Jackie Morris, this film is a journey through the seasons and landscapes of the United Kingdom, weaving together the voices of children, older people, artists and scientists.
As nature-words and the places they describe begin to vanish, it reflects on what we are losing — while offering a hopeful invitation to reawaken wonder and reconnect with the living world around us. As part of its ‘WOW Around Wales’ initiative, the screening will be followed by a live Q&A with Jackie Morris, the internationally acclaimed Wales-based artist & writer.
Cyfawwyddwr: Hannah Papacek Harper/2025/UK,Ffrainc/93munud
Mae Theatr Gwaun wrth ei bodd yn dechrau’r cydweithrediad newydd hwn gyda Gŵyl Ffilm WOW fel rhan o WOW O Gwmpas Cymru, y rhaglen drwy gydol y flwyddyn sy’n dod â sinema feiddgar, sy’n ysgogi meddwl i gymunedau ledled Cymru.
Gan gychwyn y bartneriaeth hon, rydym yn cyflwyno Lost for Words, rhaglen ddogfen farddonol wedi’i hysbrydoli gan y llyfr arobryn The Lost Words. Gan deithio trwy dymhorau’r DU, mae’r ffilm yn dathlu ein cysylltiad â natur, gan blethu lleisiau plant, pobl hŷn, artistiaid a gwyddonwyr ynghyd.
Beth mae cysylltu â natur yn ei olygu i chi? Mae Lost for Words yn gofyn y cwestiwn hwn i lawer o drigolion tirwedd y DU. Mae’r ffilm yn ein harwain ar antur trwy’r tymhorau, o gorneli mwyaf anghysbell y wlad i archifau amgueddfeydd a labordai gwyddonol. Mae plant, henuriaid, gwyddonwyr, artistiaid ac ymgyrchwyr yn siarad allan, gan rannu eu gwybodaeth a’u cysylltiad emosiynol â natur. Mae eu lleisiau’n ein hannog i fyfyrio ar ein perthynas ein hunain â’r byd naturiol o’n cwmpas.
Mae’r stori’n dechrau yn 2007, gyda diflaniad geiriau sy’n gysylltiedig â natur o’r Oxford Junior Dictionary. Mae’r geiriau coll hyn, fel “mesen,” “dyfrgi,” “clychau glas,” a “dant y llew,” yn gwasanaethu fel canllaw trwy gydol y ffilm. Gan ddechrau o’r cwestiwn hwn: ‘Sut allwn ni ofalu am rywbeth na allwn ni ei enwi?’, mae’r ffilm yn agor cwestiynau mwy a mwy ynghylch sut y gallwn ailadeiladu ein cysylltiad â’r byd naturiol.
Yn seiliedig ar ‘The Lost Words’ gan Robert McFarlane a Jackie Morris, mae’r ffilm yma yn daith trwy dymhorau a thirweddau’r Daernas Unedig, gan blethu lleisiau plant, pobl hŷn, artistiaid a gwyddonwyr ynghyd.
Wrth i eiriau natur a’r lleoedd maen nhw’n eu disgrifio ddechrau diflannu, mae’r ffilm yn myfyrio ar yr hyn rydyn ni’n ei golli. Mae’n cynnig gwahoddiad gobeithiol i ail-ddeffro rhyfeddod ac ailgysylltu â’r byd byw o’n cwmpas. Fel rhan o fenter ‘WOW Around Wales’, bydd sesiwn holi ac ateb fyw yn dilyn y dangosiad gyda Jackie Morris, yr artist a’r awdur rhyngwladol enwog sy’n byw yn lleol.
The film is followed by a Q&A
