Starring Eleanor Worthington-Cox & Maxine Peake, GWEN is released in UK Cinemas 19th July 2019.
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.
Writer, director William McGregor talks about GWEN.
"I wanted to tell a story inspired by landscape and folklore. Growing up on a remote farm I have always had a fascination with how a sense of place affects the culture of the local community, informing traditions and beliefs. In particular I wanted to look at that moment when a child starts to question the narrative they are told by their parents and begins to find their own truths and the friction that this can cause between parent and child as naivety is lost and the realities of a harsh world come into focus.
For me, it was fascinating to explore how the sublime and eerie quality of the Snowdonian landscape feeds into the psychology of our young protagonist. I remember how, as a child, even the sound of the wind or a lost animal outside on a dark night could spark my imagination and fear. I wanted to explore that childish ability to see monsters in the dark, scaring ourselves with something that doesn't physically exist. That sense of dread that ensures our own survival, our imagination telling us that there is something hidden in the dark outside and that you should be afraid. The dread that feeds on the fear of the unknown, how this fear not only shapes your own perspective, but that of an entire community and how this fear can be manipulated in order to force normal people to do terrible things."
GWEN is released in UK/Irish Cinemas 19th July 2019, courtesy of Bulldog Film Distribution.
Starring
Maxine Peake
Eleanor Worthington-Cox
Richard Harrington
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
Jodie Innes
Mark Lewis Jones
