Director Clio Barnard with Ruth Wilson and Mark Stanley

A bleak and gruelling film. The ever-flowing blackness of wicked deeds. Woman returns to family farm after abusive father’s death and comes into conflict with her brother over ownership. They are both damaged and inarticulate; the scene where he gets drunk and violent is interwoven with her expertly skinning and gutting a rabbit. Like Ken Loach and Andrea Arnold, the grimness is leavened all too briefly by encounters with the natural world and moments of connection. It was well done: the photography was good (although my reaction to sheep-cropped hillsides may not be as swooning as a nature-deprived townie’s), the actors excellent, and the film got under the skin of a narrow farming life and its particular knowledge and skills. The contrived ending irritated me somewhat: she emerges cleansed by the storm while he spends the rest of his life “atoning”.