Were you there, on July 4, 1959, when the S.S. marched into New Radnor and evacuated the entire village?
Were you there when they blew up the remote Black Yatt farmhouse, killing lots of partisans? Were you one of those loaded into vans and driven away?
These are just some of the scenes shot in New Radnor, involving the participation of the whole community, in Kevin Brownlow’s film It Happened Here released, finally, in 1964.
It was the local doctor, Dick Jobson, a keen amateur filmmaker himself, who got everyone involved. Indeed, Pauline, his wife, starred in the film.
The film-makers, Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo were just 18 and 16 when they started their ambitious project about what would have happened if the Germans had occupied Britain. The film took eight years to make, they begged and borrowed equipment and financed the film from their meagre wages and almost all the actors, and there were hundreds, were amateurs.
In 1959 they returned to New Radnor to film scenes in the church. The completed film has been called the most original, intelligent and unsettling war film of all time.
This is just one of the films from the 1960s which is being shown as part of the Second Hay on Wye Festival of British Cinema, to be held on September 24, 25 and 26 in venues around the town.
The programme includes early British Silents, with piano accompaniment from the great Neil Brand, shorts from some of the most well known British directors, Welsh archive films and lots of new and independent British film.
Kevin Brownlow himself will be coming to talk about the making of his film with Francine Stock and share experiences with Owen Sheers whose book, Resistance, on the same theme, will shortly begin filming in the Ochon Valley.
The full programme is available on line www.film festivalhay.co.uk
Tickets can be bought online or from the Guardian Hay Festival box office, The Drill Hall, 25 Lion St, Hay on Wye, HR3 5AD or by ringing (01497) 822629.
PS: If you were an extra in the film, the organisers would love to hear from you. Contact The Festival of British Cinema 0797 617 9586 info@filmfestivalhay.co.uk