A mysterious — and suspicious — run of ill fortune plagues a teenage girl and her mother and sister on their hillside farm in this folk story set in the dark hills of Wales during the industrial revolution.
Broodingly shot, Gwen is the debut film by director William McGregor. Set in Snowdonia, Wales in the 19th century, McGregor has captured something truly rare with this film, together with his fascination with the folklore and wild landscape of Snowdonia, BBC adaptations of M.R. James ghost stories, and a heavy influence to Ingmar Bergman's cinematography, Gwen is cloaked in misty menace, moody atmospheres and heavy weather during the industrial revolution, when ugly open-cast flint mines are starting to etch giant fissures into the rugged mountain landscape. The cinematography, particularly the isolated, threatening landscape is stunning and atmospheric, and the music score, by James Edward Barker, seizes with overwhelming isolation with howling winds, which actually contrasts nicely with the sparse script. Clever, beautiful and well-acted, Gwen is slow paced with lots of sickness and death, so some may find it relentlessly bleak....
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need seeding. please