Gwen

Sometimes it can feel as though Maxine Peake, a jewel in the crown of British acting, is never happier than when she's wrapped in a shawl against a shrill hillside wind at some austere juncture of history (Peterloo on film; The Village and The Devil's Whore on TV). She cuts a practical, impenetrable and severe figure in writer/director William McGregor's gothic feature-film debut, set predominantly on an unwelcoming hillside during the mid-19th century, where something unexplained lurks in the dark. The titular Gwen (played by Olivier award-winner Eleanor Worthington-Cox) and her younger sister Mari cope with thin gruel, hardscrabble tasks around the farm and pariah status in the nearby market town, seemingly linked to their absent father (seen only in idyllic flashback). McGregor successfully weaves witchcraft-like portent into a corporeal tale of survival at the sharp end of the second industrial revolution, often captured in near-dark by crafty cinematographer Adam Etherington, but leaving numerous questions unanswered. Nevertheless, Gwen gets by on atmosphere, ambiguity and swinging barn doors.