Themes: Interracial/Cross-Cultural Romance, Star-Crossed Lovers, Forbidden Love
Main Cast: Ioan Gruffudd, Nia Roberts, Sue Jones Davies, William Thomas, Mark Lewis Jones
Release Year: 1999
Country: UK
Run Time: 102 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A romantic drama about love that blooms against all odds, Solomon and Gaenor is set in Wales in 1911. Solomon (Ioan Gruffudd) is a door-to-door salesman who peddles fabric, and Gaenor (Nia Roberts) is the meek but unhappy daughter of a laboring family. The two meet while Solomon is making his rounds, and it's love at first sight, despite the fact he can barely speak Welsh, having been raised in an English-speaking village. Matters become more complicated when it's discovered Solomon is a Jew; Gaenor's father is not especially tolerant, and her brother is openly anti-Semitic, and when persecution of Jews becomes commonplace in the wake of a pit strike, the couple must flee for their own safely, as well as that of their unborn child. Solomon and Gaenor received positive notices for the skillful performances by Ioan Gruffudd and Nia Roberts, as well as Nina Kellgren's photography and Ilona Sekacz's score. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
April 30, 1999 (1999-04-30) June 2, 1999 (1999-06-02) December 8, 1999 (1999-12-08) August 25, 2000 (2000-08-25) October 14, 2000 (2000-10-14) March 12, 2001 (2001-03-12) July 6, 2002 (2002-67-06)
A young Jew (Ioan Gruffudd) in 1911 South Wales tries to make his living by selling fabrics door to door in the South Wales Valleys, but to do so he decides he must hide his ethnicity. On one of his sales he meets and falls in love with a demure young woman (Nia Roberts) with a strong-willed father (William Thomas) and a Jew-hating anti-semitic brother (Mark Lewis Jones). The two fall in love and she becomes pregnant, but only then does she learn of his ethnic background. When anti-Jewish riots break out, the two are forced to flee and become separated.
