TV, FILM & RADIO
Fateful encounter
The Green Knight / In cinemas from Friday 6 August
It’s a tale that in key respects follows beats familiar from superhero origin stories. But in writer-director David Lowery’s new film, the backdrop isn’t contemporary and doesn’t involve a fateful laboratory mishap. Instead, we’re in the mythical realm of Camelot, where the arrival of a giant green-skinned traveller provokes a headstrong young knight.
Accepting the challenge of landing a blow against this mysterious stranger, Arthur’s nephew, Gawain, springs into action while older and wiser knights hold back, only to find his taunting adversary has eldritch recuperative powers. Worse, Gawain has struck a bargain that means he has, quite literally, to prepare to put his own neck on the line a year hence.
Based on an epic poem dating from the 14th century,
