In 1951, the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas traveled Iran on an assignment to write a propaganda film for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Thomas’s job, he would later remark, was to “pour water on troubled oil”. Combining colonial archival photographs with Thomas’s lyrical account (performed in voiceover by actor Michael Sheen), this documentary film follows the poet’s journey through the country, capturing his haunting vision of oil and modernity, as a political upheaval for oil nationalization unfolds.

Director’s Note

I made this film because despite the many books and films about Dylan Thomas his fascinating journey through Iran remains unknown. I wanted to take the audience through the dark world of oil and exploitation that Thomas witnessed not from an “objective” distance but by immersing them into the poet’s own psychological journey. I chose to use extracts from Thomas’s own words with still images as they allow for the richness and density of his evocative prose to be fully absorbed and invite new images in the mind of the viewer. I placed great emphasis on the soundscape to evoke a sense of place and interiority as well as to emphasize the metaphoric and Gothic imagery of Thomas’s lyrical reflections. The overall aim was to create an eerie, sometimes humorous and jarring impression – one that engages with the stark social and visual contrasts that Thomas was witness to.