A young girl struggles to take care of her younger sister and ill
mother as a group of angry villagers threaten to take their farm. DRAMA
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Gwen (2018)Written and Directed by William McGregor
Starring Eleanor Worthington-Cox, Maxine Peake, Richard Harrington |
This is a bleak and hauntingly beautiful film. It's set in rural north Wales during what I'm guessing is the 1800's and follows the titular young Gwen (played by Eleanor Worthington-Cox), her sister (pretty much non-existent), and their mother Elen (Maxine Peake). The landscapes shown in this film are breathtaking as well as imposing because the weather is always wet and dark. The wind is itself a character in that it almost lives and breathes in the soundtrack. Gwen's family is reliant on their crops and sheep to see them prosper but they experience tragedy after tragedy. The father, as have most men of the town, are fighting an unknown war leaving the women and children to carry on.
The local quarry owners are trying to buy up the outlying areas for their business and made an offer to Gwen's mother that she refuses. Whole families are wiped out by cholera or other mysterious circumstances which points an ominous finger at the top hat wearing owner of the quarry and his goons. Just when you think things are going to get better, they don't. Crops die, sheep die, and the family horse is put down. To make matters worse, Gwen's mother comes down with a mysterious ailment that gives her seizures and alters her behavior. The whole situation just continues to be ground into the mud until the most sad and scary endings ever. You're never quite sure if there's an actual supernatural evil present or if it's just the evil of man that's responsible. It is a slow burn so be warned that you're not going to be bowled over by flashy cuts and jump scares. Instead you're seeing this film unfold through a young girls eyes as her world is invaded not by ghosts or demons (maybe, again, it's very vague) but evil, greedy men who think it's their right to take what they want from women under no protection from another man. |