God’s Own Country

Director Francis Lee creates a visual meditation on his cult debut feature God’s Own Country (2017) through on-set photography, stills, personal scrapbooks, moodboards, casting tapes, and his original screenplay Revisits the film’s celebrated exploration of lived Queer experience in rural Yorkshire and its far-reaching influence on Queer representation in cinema Includes a foreword by Lee, an in-conversation with leading actors Josh O’Connor and Alec Secareanu, and an interview with Lee by Variety film critic Guy Lodge delving into the film’s conception and influences Upon its release in 2017, Francis Lee’s debut film God’s Own Country became an instant modern classic, beloved for its frank and revelatory representation of Queer experience in rural Yorkshire. Lee’s story of an unlikely romance between a subdued young farmer and a Romanian migrant worker weaves a complex tale of isolation and intimacy, shame and redemption, all played out against the savage beauty of England’s northern countryside. This book, released to mark the film’s tenth anniversary, presents an immersive document of Lee’s working process, bringing together a plethora of materials: scrapbooks and moodboards, to reference images by photographers Bill Brandt and Collier Schorr and excerpts from the original script, call sheets, and casting tapes. Stills and on-set photography by Jack Barnes and Agatha Nitecka capture the majesty and brutality of the film’s world. An introduction by Lee provides deeply personal insight into the film’s conception, and is expanded by an in- conversation between Lee and stars Josh O’Connor and Alec Secareanu and an interview with Variety film critic Guy Lodge, in which Lee discusses his approach to filmmaking and the influences of the New Queer Cinema movement of 1990s Britain. God’s Own Country celebrates a narrative of self-discovery, love, and ties to the ground we work and live on.