This brooding, artfully composed debut from writer-director Scott Graham explores the complex relationship between vulnerable 17-year-old Shell (assured newcomer Chloe Pirrie) and her taciturn, epileptic father (Joseph Mawle) as they run a petrol station in a remote corner of the Scottish Highlands.
Mum disappeared years ago, customers are scarce and deer meat is subsistence food for the couple during the long winter months.
It’s refreshing to see a British film in which place and character are so entwined.
Yet the melodramatic resolution jars with Graham’s hitherto patient, sparse approach.
