The Dig (2021)
IMDb rating: 7.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 86%
In the year 1938, with England on the brink of war, Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan) enlists the help of excavator Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) to uncover the mystery behind the mounds on her estate in Suffolk.
Little did Edith and Basil realise that the estate was the site of an historically significant medieval burial, with an entire ship and many more Dark Age Anglo-Saxon treasures lying in wait beneath the ground. Lily James plays real-life archaeologist Peggy Piggott, who made her name at the age of 25 for her work leading an excavation of a Bronze Age cemetery in 1937. In the film, she falls in love with the fictional airman Rory Lomax, played by South African-born Johnny Flynn.
With the backdrop of the Second World War, and the deceptive emptiness of the English countryside, the film portrays a fascinating time and place in history.
“The Dig is a movie steeped in the inevitable passage of time, but it’s also a reminder that the past lives on through the things we leave behind,” writes Time Magazine, with The Observer saying, “This bittersweet tale of the unearthing of the Sutton Hoo treasures on the eve of the second world war has gentle charm to spare.”
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