Wednesday 1^st July – Rural Cinema – Testament of Youth

Starring Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Emily Watson, Taron Egerton and Kit Harington

BBFC: 12A

Testament of Youth is a powerful coming-of-age story which tackles love, war, loss and remembrance. It’s based on the autobiography of Vera Brittain, which was a bestseller on publication, and has become the classic testimony of that war, from a woman’s point of view. Vera’s story encompasses vast themes – youth, hope, dreams, love, war, futility, and how to make sense of the darkest times. It’s a key witness account of WW1, which continues to resonate because it is above all a personal story of how one person faces war and tragedy, and rises above them.

The story begins in the spring of 1914, with Vera Brittain – a youthful feminist, free-minded and irrepressible – determined to sit exams for Oxford, to the dismay of her conservative parents. She is encouraged and inspired by her brother Edward and his friends, particularly the brilliant Roland Leighton, who shares her dream of being a writer. But her hopes for Oxford with Roland turn to dust as war is declared, and all the young men enlist; she herself sets aside her hopes of academe, and becomes a nurse.