Downton star returns to Wales in writing and directing mode
Welsh actor and writer Tom Cullen has made his directing debut behind the camera in his homeland.
The 34-year-old actor, who played Viscount Gillingham in Downton Abbey, filmed Pink Wall in the Elan Valley in Powys.
Shot near Rhayader in only nine days, the film is a love story about two Americans living in Wales.
"It meant everything to me to shoot in Wales," the actor said.
He was born in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, and grew up in Llandrindod Wells.
Watch the Pink Wall trailer:
"Wales is the background to the film, so you get the immediacy of an argument they're having, set against the backdrop of these mountains in the Elan valley, which have always been there and will always be there."
The film premiered at the South by South West festival in Texas and is now on release in the UK
Cullen wrote the story but also got the chance to direct it due to a three-month window in his acting schedule.
"It was an experimental passion project which I didn't intend to make but it's become the thing I'm most proud of," he said.
Watch Mark Kermode's review of Pink Wall:
He now wants to film more stories in Wales, where he admits he feels more relaxed.
Cullen is writing a film about the mid Wales farming community and another story set in the same area about a child going through his parents' divorce.
"For some reason all of the stories that come out of me are set in Wales or about Wales. I've always been passionately Welsh and I guess I feel it's slightly under represented in mainstream media.
"I am really hungry about telling Welsh stories from inside Wales but hopefully on a global scale."
