Beauty review

Winner of the Queer Palm at last year’s Cannes, Oliver Hermanus’explicit study of obsession and repression in middle-class South Africa loses much of its power in understatement.

Closeted, self-loathing businessman François (Deon Lotz) bottles up his homosexuality until he crosses paths with handsome young family friend Christian (Charlie Keegan) and his painfully knotted emotions start to unravel.

Lotz' tortured expression carries the film, silently falling apart in an artful series of lingering pans and excruciating static shots.

Alas, the film’s intense subtlety ends up pulling too many punches.