A powerful and fascinating exploration of the important but relatively unknown region of the Northern Caucasus and its people. It lies between the Black and Caspian Seas and is within European Russia. Wars have been fought here for centuries - the most recent in Chechnya. Monteleone examines the stubborn, rebellious culture of this region, which although part of Russia, differs in the ethnicity, religion and social customs of its inhabitants. 'If you shoot in the Caucasus, the echo will be heard for centuries,' says an old proverb from the region.
“Thistle & Weed” is actually a true story, for the most part. Obviously certain things and places have been exaggerated to become more appealing, but the story itself is history. Thistle & Weed is a story about two orphan children, Ewan and Thistle, who have the extraordinary misfortune of living in the catacombs and sewers beneath Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. I’m not gonna lie, their lives are pretty miserable. Whether it’s empty chamber pots or scrounging for food, their days are pretty uneventful... until recently. Edinburgh in 1828 was a pretty spectacular place. In fact, it was actually the centre of medicine for the Western, if not the entire world. Anatomy and dissections were a pass time at the ‘Royal Institute of Medicine in Edinburgh’. If you had an afternoon free, why not go see a limb or two get cut off. Nothing on this weekend, let’s go see an appendix. The only problem was, your only “supposed” to cut up dead bodies, and people just weren’t dying quick enough. This meant that the doctors needed to try more ‘extreme’ measures. With the help of the ‘Snatchers’ people were disappearing left, right and centre. Only to wind up “Dead from Natural Causes” and on an operating table for prime time viewing. This was less than ideal for Ewan and Thistle, two orphan children who no one would miss. Living in the dark tunnels of Stoneroot, out of mind and out of sight from the police. Who was going to notice one or two or even a hundred orphans missing. Without giving away too much, that’s the general story line. Below is the blurb. “When a third child disappears from the dimly lit labyrinth of tunnels beneath Edinburgh’s cobblestones ‘Royal Mile’, it becomes all too clear, no one is safe. Ewan and Thistle, two orphan children raised underground, can only hope to solve the strange disappearances before they too find themselves kidnapped and at the mercy of the ‘Snatchers’. As the daring pair draw closer to the truth, their journey becomes ever more treacherous, with unexpected discoveries and fatal consequences.”
