The book feels like a writer working within his limits and not breaking any new ground, believes KEN COCKBURN
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.
MARIA DUARTE recommends the ambitious portrait of an agricultural community confronted by the trauma of enclosure



