A COMMUNITY film, which tells the tale of one of Pembroke Dock’s best-kept secrets, has won a special award at a recent Cardiff film festival.

Code Name Magic Roundabout, tells the tale of the town’s connection with one of the most iconic spaceships in the much-loved Star Wars series of blockbuster movies.

The 10 minute film was shortlisted, and won, the community film award in the recent Cardiff mini film festival.

The Empire Strikes Back, the second film in the Star Wars series, saw the only full size model of the Millennium Falcon used in the Star Wars films by Han Solo, played by Harrison Ford, made in Pembroke Dock.

Construction of the Millennium Falcon took place during the winter of 1978-79 in one of the Dockyard’s flying boat hangers before being taken to Pinewood Studios for fitting out and ultimately into film im-mortality.

It has previously been described as “one of Pembroke Dock’s best kept secrets”.

The project for Code Name Magic Roundabout started off as lyrics for a modern-style folk song by local group, the Animal Jack Band.

When Sharron Harries of Pembroke film company ‘Curious Ostrich’ heard the song, she knew it would be a perfect subject for a short film and so the project began.

With a group of local actors and extras, the film follows the adventures of a group of kids, who, caught up in the news stories of UFO sightings around Pembrokeshire at the time, stumble across the biggest secret of all; the building of a spaceship at the Western Hangar.

Speaking about the film festival win, Andy, of Code Name Magic Roundabout said: “We were very pleased, just to be nominated for the festival. It meant that our film would get screened in Cardiff to a wider audience... and then, when it actually won the best film in the community films category, we were really surprised.

“We have had some great comments and feedback on our website since the festival, which strengthens our belief that a ‘real’ production could be made here.

“One of the next steps for us now is to try and pitch it to the Welsh film companies and hope they may see the potential for a full-length film here in Pembroke Dock. And when it comes to building (or re-building) another prop, well, the original crew are still here - and they would have no problems with supervising a younger team.”

Code Name Magic Roundabout has a shop window display in Pembroke Dock’s Dimond Street, opposite Cwtch café.