RITA DI SANTO draws attention to a new film that features Ken Loach and Jeremy Corbyn, and their personal experience of media misrepresentation
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Horrific home truths
MARIA DUARTE recommends the disturbing narrative of a family struggling against the odds in the wilds of 19th-century Snowdonia
JULIA TOPPIN recommends Patti Smith’s eloquent memoir that wrestles with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime
MARJORIE MAYO welcomes an account of family life after Oscar Wilde, a cathartic exercise, written by his grandson
KEN COCKBURN guides us through a survey of Chekov’s early short fiction, and the groundwork it laid for his later masterpieces
ANDY HEDGECOCK revels in a hugely enjoyable but deadly serious examination of the 1930s, that is an indictment of our own era
The bard distills our hellish times into fiery words
Gwen (15)
Directed by William McGregor
THE MORNING STAR’S new ambassador Maxine Peake stars in this dark and disturbing gothic folk tale set in 1855 Snowdonia during the industrial revolution.
Teenager Gwen (a revelatory Eleanor Worthington-Cox) is trying to keep her family and home together against all the odds. Her father has not returned from war and she is struggling with her mother’s mysterious illness while looking after her younger sister (Jodi Innes) and battling a ruthless mining company hell-bent on taking their farm and land.
Bleak and gritty, writer-director William McGregor’s debut feature is a slow-burning mystery-cum-horror which explores the plight of women in 19th-century north Wales.
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The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews I Am Martin Parr, September Says, The Monkey, and The Gorge
ANDY HEDGECOCK recommends two collections of short stories that use a single location to connect the narratives, and explore the limits of our ability to understand the world