*** Read my 4-star Gwen review and interviews with director William McGregor and star Eleanor Wortington-Cox ***
Starring Maxine Peake and Eleanor Worthington-Cox (who has been receiving rave reviews for her performance), Gwen is set in Wales during the Industrial Revolution.
A small family lives on the last remaining farm in their valley, but something strange is happening outside.
Cox plays the 17-year-old Gwen, with Peake as her mother Elen and Jodie Innes as Gwen’s younger sister Mari. The film looks eerie but gorgeous, with chilly mountains set off against the orange fires, as Gwen spots something in the fields and her mother becomes more secretive.
Here’s the synopsis:
“In the stark beauty of 19th Century Snowdonia a young girl, Gwen, tries desperately to hold her home together. Struggling with her mother’s mysterious illness, her father’s absence and a ruthless mining company encroaching on their land, a growing darkness begins to take grip of her home, and the suspicious local community turns on Gwen and her family.”
Written and directed by William McGregor, Gwen premiered last year at the Toronto Film Festival and has its UK premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival this month. The film also stars Richard Harrington, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith and Mark Lewis Jones.
It’s released in the UK and Ireland on 19 July.
Watch the trailer and scroll down for images from the movie:
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