Cert 15 89mins Stars 5

I was utterly hooked by this startlingly unique British drama which deploys an arresting visual style to catch the deep social currents of a contemporary Cornish fishing village.

Edward Rowe is a force of nature as a proud, determined fisherman who dreams of owning his own boat and maintaining his family’s seagoing tradition.

But an inexorable tide of middle class tourists are sinking the prospects of the locals, creating a conflict which is to have tragic consequences.

Remarkable for its consummate editing, economical storytelling, compelling humanity, salty dialogue and dry humour, it thrillingly mixes cutting social observations and elements of folk horror with an almost documentary air.

Harking back back to post war cinema via being filmed in black and white on old fashioned 16mm film stock, the stark photography is full of gnarled textures and lends a timelessness to this very modern tale, which is the best British drama of the year.