I Can Hear the Cuckoo

One woman's journey to the Welsh Valley, and how she heals a fractured past and discovers a sense of belonging through the community she finds there.

Heart Valley, based on Wilf the farmer and written and co-produced by Kiran Sidhu, won Best Documentary Short Film at Tribeca Film Festival 2022.

After Kiran loses her mother, she escapes to the Welsh countryside - to allow herself to grieve away from turbulent city life in London, to leave her toxic family behind, and to find solace in the purity of the natural world. She openly wonders, 'what's a brown city girl like me doing in the Welsh countryside? ', but she quickly discovers a sense of belonging in the small, close-knit community she finds there; her neighbour Sarah, who teaches her how to sledge when the winter snow arrives; Jane, a 70-year-old woman who lives at the top of a mountain with three dogs and four alpacas with an inspiring attitude for life; and Wilf, the farmer who eats the same supper every day, and taught Kiran that the cuckoo arrives in April and leaves in July.

I Can Hear the Cuckoo is a tender, philosophical memoir about the beauty of a microscopic life, the value of solitariness, and respecting the rhythm and timing of the earth. This is a reflective book about finding friendship in the most unexpected places - and what nature and a small community in the Welsh Valleys can teach us about life.

A short film about Kiran's profile on Wilf was created by Pulse Films called Heart Valley, and Kiran is credited as writer and co-producer. The film won Best Documentary Short Film at Tribeca Film Festival 2022, beating over 7,000 submissions and 20 finalists. It's being shown on BBC Wales at the end of July '22 and will be on iPlayer for a year.