It's wild, Welsh and weird...

Super Furry frontman Gruff Rhys continues an eclectic career with the release of Separado!, a characteristically zany extremely pro-Welsh low-budget documentary. Exploring a story about how his family were separated by an 18^th century horse race that went wrong, Gruff finds his roots.

After Aunty Beryl shows us the family tree, Gruff sets out to research relatives who emigrated to South America to escape English oppression and set up a Welsh colony in Patagonia. Sailing on the “Mimosa” to Puerto Madryn and journeying for nearly 20 years, the fleeing Welsh lived in caves and off a barren land that was virtually a desert.

Gruff follows the trajectory of earlier Welsh settlers in a borrowed VW using a vague history book reference to start in Brazil in the South near the Uruguay border in Pelotas to then travel through Buenos Aires and Argentina to Trelew, once the cultural capital of “New Wales”. Among distant relatives, he visits Gaiman, home of tea houses, Welsh signs and even daffodils, before continuing to Esquel and Trevelin.

All through his journey, Gruff has one particular aim – to meet distant relative and childhood hero, Gaucho, Renee Gryths. Gryths sang in Welsh but had a poncho, Spanish guitar and entered the stage on horseback. Leaving for Patagonia in 1972 and last spotted in 1984 in a TV documentary about farming Guanacos, Gryths is considered a free-spirit by his friends and family and a difficult catch for Gruff.

Like Gruff's music, Separado! is full of the experimental and is visually imaginative. From the grainy effect depicting Wales in 1882 as a horseman cries “I'll race you home, you son of Satan – especially with your one-eyed horse” with sped-up Benny Hill style footage to the time-travelling eerie red monkey-mouthed bike helmet accompanied by music reminiscent of The Tripods. Morphing and multiplying, Gruff dons the red helmet to take us through the ages and between locations. Split screen and kaleidoscope effects show road travel, showcasing some spectacular scenery.

All the while Gruff's psychedelic soundtrack accompanies some occasionally self-indulgent overly long shots. Carrying a box of sounds around with him and playing distorted guitar, Gruff picks up Tony Da Gatorra, a crazy hippy who plays “songs of protest” and talks of music as: “an international language – you dig?”

"At times Separado! teeters between endearing and annoying in its extremely Pro-Welsh outlook"

More like an extended music video in Welsh, some of the interviews at the start feel a bit contrived and at times Separado! teeters between endearing and annoying in its extremely Pro-Welsh outlook, with subtitles like “Wales, Europe” appearing. A slightly bizarre flashback of old looks more like a 60s scene and is far too drawn out - females clad in psychedelic Indian attire sing and prance around a Merlin figure.

Despite its faults, Separado! is still full of comical scenes, such as Gruff being chased by an armadillo and the acoustic set he plays in Welsh in a packed out Gaiman town hall using a voice changer and wearing the bike helmet to bemused grannies shown covering their ears.

During his adventure he meets lots of colourful characters like his distant cousin, the singing hairdresser originally from Chile and the singing farmers, Jones brothers. He sees the first ever organ that came to Patagonia and learns that the secret of a long life is to never smoke in bed.

Although Separado! somehow still manages to drag despite its short running time and would possibly be better as a 50 minute TV doc, it's difficult to resist its playful sense of humour and hard not to admire an ever-grinning Gruff's sense of adventure.

Director: Dylan Goch, Gruff Rhys
Written by: Gruff Rhys
Running Time: 84 mins
Starring: Gruff Rhys, Tony Da Gatorra, Rene Griffiths, Leonardo and Alejandro Jones,

Seperado! is released in the UK on July 30th

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