(59 min; 1987; English and with subtitles)
Produced and Directed by David Thomas

2022 marks the centenary year of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. 

The documentary features readings by noted actors Michael Gough, Edward Fox, and Eileen Atkins.  The Waste Land powerfully expresses the disillusionment and disgust of the post–World War I era in Europe. In the film, Professor Frank Kermode, of Cambridge University; Eliot biographer Peter Ackroyd; and poets Sir Stephen Spender and Craig Raine examine the complex nature of Eliot’s influential poem, analyse its appeal, and trace the reasons why it became one of the best-known emblems of the 20th century.