Sebastián Lelio directs Florence Pugh, Tom Burke and Kíla Lord Cassidy in this Irish period drama where a nurse is employed by a small town’s elders to observe a fasting girl to determine whether a miracle is occurring.

A quietly brilliant movie that should never have got shuffled away in a Netflix churn. Cagey performances by all with little vents of lust and escape. There’s two deeper ideas bubbling under the surface. The value of a life. And the artificiality of the traps we keep ourselves in. The tragedy is never dry and the drama moves forward with a heightened degree of tension. Not all questions are answered about faith, poverty, death, sexism and grief but it reaches a satisfying conclusion. Pugh’s first ‘proper’ piece of screen acting since Lady Macbeth made her an immediate sex symbol.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Lady Macbeth (2017)

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