The Well and the Mine

This novel was written by Gin Philipps.

Alabama, 1931. In a little coal mining town, families struggle not to starve. Tess, a young girl, once daydreams, sitting on the porch at dawn. Suddenly she sees a woman throwing a baby into the family well. At first, no one wants to believe Tess's story, till the baby's body is discovered. Tess and her elder sister Virgie will then try to find out who was the woman who killed her baby. But things are not always so simple in those Depression-era days. Through the words of each member of the family, Leta, the hard-working mum, Albert, the father and coal mining employee, Virgie and Tess, their daughters, and little Jack, the youngest of the family, we have here an accurate insight of what was life in working classes during the 1930s.

A Mighty Heart

I've always claimed I didn't like Angelina Jolie but this is another movie which definitely made me change my mind, along with Changeling and Gia. Because this is yet another movie she carries to the top, playing it so rightly. Based on the novel written by Marianne Pearl, this movie is about the above quoted wife of beheaded journalist Daniel Pearl, killed in Pakistan in 2003.

Jolie plays Marianne Pearl, between the days following her husband's kidnapping at the end of January 2003 and the discovery of his body (early February) and of the gruesome video of his beheading. Knowing it really happened makes this movie even more moving and intense, especially since most of us remember having heard (or seen?) the news on TV.

The entire cast plays brilliant parts, which was a must while treating a contemporary event, otherwise this would have resulted in a tearsome and cheesy drama, whereas here it is absolutely true to the point.

Dead Man's Shoes

This movie is a thriller directed by Shane Meadows (This is England). There is a guy who's pursuing a band of drug dealers and threatens to kill them all, because once those gangsters molested his younger brother. Mixing gory scenes with humour, and showing the audience drug's effects on people addicted to it, this movie is very sensible, yet utterly violent despite its laughable scenes.. Located in rural England, it shows all the latent violence linked to drug market, as well as the damages it does on people. The music is very well chosen and its beauty strangely matches the ugliness of it all.