ENCOUNTERS
86 DIARY: LISTEN / WATCH / VISIT By Jonathan Wright, Rhiannon Davies and Rachel Dickens 94 EXPLORE… Stockport Air Raid Shelters
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Action and consequences
The 14th-century chivalric romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is, says American writer-director David Lowery, “so rich, so overflowing with meaning and symbolism, that one could make a dozen adaptations of it and still not quite capture what makes it so vital”.
He hasn’t let this stop him trying as, in a special-effects-laden fantasy that plays out almost as a superhero origin story, Dev Patel (The Personal History of David Copperfield) stars as King Arthur’s nephew, Gawain. He’s an impetuous young man who lands himself in trouble after an encounter with an eldritch figure who turns up at Camelot, passing through to issue a fateful dare.
What follows is a drama that touches on privilege, masculinity and our relationship with nature – and which, pleasingly, features a talking fox.
A strong supporting cast includes Alicia Vikander () in a dual role, and Sarita Choudhury as Gawain’s mother, a character who intentionally calls to mind Morgan
