In 1951, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company set out to produce a publicity film promoting its activities in Iran. They hired Dylan Thomas, a little-known aspect of his life despite the numerous publications about him.

This 26-minute poetic documentary follows Thomas’s journey capturing his encounter with the country and its people as a political upheaval for oil nationalisation unfolds.

Constructed almost entirely from archival photographic images and Thomas’s lyrical reflections (performed in voiceover by Michael Sheen), the film captures the poet’s haunting vision of oil and modernity in 1950s Iran, as a political upheaval for oil nationalisation unfolds.

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