THE DIG
Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes
Set in 1939, The Dig follows a young widow in Suffolk, England, Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan), who hires an archaeologist, Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes), to dig up strange formations on her property. This excavation leads to the discovery of the Sutton Hoo burial site, two medieval cemeteries that date back to the 6th and 7th centuries. The Sutton Hoo site continues to be a site of intrigue for archaeologists, with digs still occurring to this day. One of the two cemeteries was discovered to contain an undisturbed ship burial, with a dearth of Anglo-Saxon artifacts contained on the ship. Many of them are now housed in the British Museum.
Of course, the movie is not a biopic or historical re-telling of the important discovery, but a romanticized reimagining of it, parallelling the efforts of the diggers with the looming threat of World War II. Funnily enough, Fiennes was actually the perfect choice to play a self-taught archaeologist. In real life, he and his brother actually helped establish an archaeological field school based in Cheshire. You could almost say this role was meant for him.
Simon Stone directed the film from a script by Moira Buffini, who adapted it from John Preston’s 2007 historical novel of the same name. Nicole Kidman was originally slated to play Edith Pretty, but she had to drop out of the project in 2019 and was replaced with Mulligan. Lily James, Johnny Flynn, and Ben Chaplin also star in the film. The Dig had a limited theatrical release on January 15, 2021.
The Dig starts streaming on Netflix on January 29, 2021.
