Admired British actor Paddy Considine, known for his collaborations with Shane Meadows, turns his hand to writing/direction with this award-winning feature debut. Considine grew up on a Midlands council estate and acknowledges personal echoes in the material. Shot over four weeks in Leeds, the director drew on detailed observation of local residents, with extras including local housing-project residents.

Joseph, an unemployed man plagued by violence and a rage that is driving him to self-destruction, earns a chance of redemption that appears in the form of Hannah, a happy go lucky charity shop worker with a dark domestic secret – a multi-award winning performance from Olivia Colman hitherto best known for C4s sitcom with a difference Peep Show, who went on to play Carol Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Considine noted that Colman went on a total transformation on this film. She became world-class.

A great deal more than a misery memoir on film, this character study is as gripping as any hardboiled thriller, delivering emotional content that’ll stay with you for a long time. Highly recommended. Kim Newman, Empire.

What starts out as a grimly believable example of slice-of-life miserablism mutates into a covert treatise upon transcendence in which both religion and reality play a part. Mark Kermode, Observer.

Awards include , BAFTA 2012. Directing Award World Cinema and Special Jury Prize (Mullan and Colman), Sundance Film Festival, 2011. Best British Independent Film and Best Actress, British Independent Film Awards, 2011. Best Actress, Evening Standard Film Awards, 2011. Best Actress, London Critics Circle Film Awards, 2011. Silver Hugo, Best Actress, Chicago International Film Festival, 2011. Best Directorial Debut, Stockholm Film Festival, 2011