Borrowed Pasture

Richard Burton narrates this stunning film of two Polish soldiers struggling to make a living from a derelict farm in Carmarthenshire.

Eugenius Okolowicz and Vlodek Bulaj, soldiers exiled after serving in the Second World War, sought shelter in Wales. They came upon a desolate hillside farm which had lain unoccupied and decaying for 20 years. Neither of the Poles had farmed before, but the land was cheap because it was unwanted. This film tells the story of the men's 12th year living at Penygaer. But it is more the tragic story of the price they have paid for poor independence and of their unending struggle, in loneliness and hardship, to be themselves. (1960)