SHEPHERD
★★★
OUT 26 NOVEMBER / CERT 15 / 103 MINS
DIRECTOR Russell Owen
CAST Tom Hughes, Kate Dickie, Gaia Weiss
Atmospheric and assured — if somewhat unsubtle at times — Russell Owen’s rural chiller makes the most of both its remote location and an exceptional performance from Tom Hughes (TV’s Victoria). As a traumatised widower seeking solace by working as a shepherd on an isolated and increasingly frightening island, Hughes shoulders the story’s psychological themes with a restraint that is at potent odds with the film’s full-tilt Gothic aesthetic. Some elements, such as Richard Stoddard’s evocative cinematography and Callum Donaldson’s haunting soundscape, work better than others; the tired narrative cliché of a dead wife being motivation for a male character to embark on a journey of the soul should itself be dead and buried. Overall, however, Shepherd is an effective, and affecting, study of loss, grief and guilt.