Every word of this film is freighted with meaning, as is every image. There's nothing superficial or redundant. The assembly of events via sound and image is subtly double-edged, conveying what is and what might be, occasionally teasing audience expectations and presenting alternatives which challenge our preconceptions of what should be.
To make a period drama that genuinely conveys how the people probably felt rather than how we would like them to have felt requires emotional and historical insight, some innate poetry and a willingness to take risks with audiences' levels of empathy and understanding. So, a necessary note of appreciation for the direction by Simon Stone, the script by Moira Buffini, the lighting, the camerawork, the design (costume and set) and the performances by everyone. There are no small parts in this film. It has been an incremental process of delicate decisions.
This film is a meditation about England and the English at a perilous moment in history as much as it is about Sutton Hoo and its treasures. There's poetry intertwined with myth, magic and humour - all underlying the concrete facts. In its conjunction of emotion, time and landscape it seems unlike most modern British cinema; one has to hark back to the past, to the extraordinary films of Powell and Pressburger in the 1940s, especially A CANTERBURY TALE, to match this mood, style, humour, sadness and triumph. Clearly, I believe The Dig belongs in very special company.
This is our current Zeitgeist. It speaks to us now. I anticipate we will still feel as moved by The Dig in another seventy years.
Review of The Dig
