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God’s Own Country

God’s Own Country is a British drama written and directed by Francis Lee. Another Sundance film earlier this year, the film stars Josh O’Connor, Alec Secareanu, Ian Hart, and Gemma Jones.
Johnny Saxby (Josh O’Connor) works long hours on his family’s remote farm in the north of England. He numbs the daily frustration of his lonely existence with nightly binge-drinking at the local pub and casual sex. But when a handsome Romanian migrant worker (Alec Secareanu) arrives to take up temporary work on the family farm, Johnny suddenly finds himself having to deal with emotions he has never felt before. As they begin working closely together during lambing season, an intense relationship starts to form, which could change Johnny’s life forever.
In an interview with The Guardian, Lee talked about the film’s sex scenes. “It’s the funniest thing that we’re still talking about sex scenes in gay films,” he says. “I’m not a big fan of dialogue. So [Johnny] wasn’t going to have a conversation where he goes: ‘I’m feeling a bit like this now.’ I had to tell it visually. That’s where the sex really played in. I could have made a film that might have taken away some of the challenge that a wide audience might have [with the scenes]. But I didn’t want to do that. You only get one opportunity to make your first film, and it’s the time that you can risk the most.”
God’s Own Country is rated 18A.