Synopsis

In 1917, two English cartographers arrive in the Welsh village of Ffynnon Garw to measure its celebrated mountain. When they determine that the summit is technically only a hill, the outraged villagers unite to raise it above the required height before the surveyors return. Their campaign becomes a spirited test of community pride, local ingenuity, and the unexpected ties formed between outsiders and residents.

Factoids & Trivia

• The story was inspired by an anecdote that writer Christopher Monger heard from his grandfather about Taff's Well and nearby Garth Hill in South Wales. The film's Ffynnon Garw and its mountain are fictionalized versions of those places.

• Although the movie has the flavor of a local legend, the central incident is fictional. Garth Hill's summit includes a Bronze Age burial mound, giving the real location an older historical significance than the film's story suggests.

• The production used Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant and Llansilin in Powys for the village scenes. The original area near Taff's Well had become too developed, with industrial construction, power lines, and wind turbines making it unsuitable for the period setting.

• The Welsh expression "beth-yn-galw," used in one of the film's jokes, means roughly "whatchamacallit."

• The betting board includes the name "Dai Bread," a reference to a character in Dylan Thomas' radio play "Under Milk Wood."

• The film screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival and was also entered in the 19th Moscow International Film Festival.

• The film's long title is echoed within the story as the name of the tale being recounted, reinforcing its deliberately folkloric, story-within-a-story quality.