The younger woman's charisma intensely draws in the older, and the two become friends, but when Barbara learns of Sheba's affair with a teenage student her moral outrage turns to narcissistic manipulation as she tries to conceal their secret.

Eyre (‘The Dresser’, ‘Atonement’) directs the film beautifully, with great support from an insistent, ever-present score by Philip Glass. This is an original, unpredictable film, erotic and surprisingly intense, with a cast that also includes Bill Nighy and a young Juno Temple.