Local arts collective Chasing Cow Productions has released an adaptation of Katherine Mansfield's short story 'The Wind Blows', set in West Dorset, in line with the centenary of the author's death. 

The short film, directed by local artist Grace Crabtree, takes place over the course of a day, capturing a series of fleeting moments and encounters experienced by the film's young protagonist, Matilda, played by Tilly Boulay.

The film was shot around West Dorset, in Lyme Regis, Beaminster, Salway Ash and Monkton Wyld Court. The film features an original soundtrack by composer Robert Lee and stars actors Robin Lee and Howie Blow.

Grace said: "I felt Katherine Mansfield's writing would lend itself perfectly to a filmed adaptation – the brief story creates a rich texture full of glimpses and interruptions; a diffuse atmosphere accentuated by precise detail and a startling clarity of emotion that at the next moment slips through the fingers.

"In Mansfield's short lifetime she wrote numerous short stories, and often returned through the imagination to New Zealand. It becomes a world of her own that is half-real, half-fictive, and in adapting the story we could echo this, with our retelling unfolding in the landscape of an invented Edwardian West Dorset."

The film premiered last year as part of Chasing Cow's Evening of Modernism and was also screened at the Bridport Arts Centre as part of 2022's From Page to Screen Festival. 

Editor Fred Warren said: "This was probably our most ambitious Chasing Cow project so far. Not just because of the practical challenges of creating a period film but also because tonally the story is so complex – on one level you have this adolescent turbulence where it feels like the world's coming to an end but then, underneath this, there is a deeper sadness of places and people remembered yet fading away. 

"Trying to capture this in the filming and editing was a real challenge and it's a pleasure to be able to share our efforts with a wider audience."

Released alongside 'The Wind Blows' is a filmed talk providing historical context and interpretation, written by author and academic Dr Beci Carver and performed at Chasing Cow's premiere screening in 2022.

The film and talk are freely available to watch online through Chasing Cow's website YouTube channel.

Links below:

'The Wind Blows' (short film): https://youtu.be/ndWg9PqoOio

'Sending the Wind Away' (talk): https://youtu.be/qglHszx0bd8