Resistance

Directed by Amit Gupta. Starring Andrea Riseborough, Tom Wlaschiha, Michael Sheen, Stanislav Ianevski, Iwan Rheon, Kimberley Nixon, Stanislav, Ianeski PG cert, Cineworld, Dublin, 91 min

WE DON’T have nearly enough contra-factual thrillers set in a universe where the Axis powers won the second World War. Long a staple of speculative fiction, the scenario just doesn’t seem to fly with film-makers.

A host of cheers are, thus, directed towards the folk behind this insidiously bleak adaptation of an admired novel by poet Owen Sheers.

Don't go expecting an orgy of Stukas and machine-gun fire. Amit Gupta's debut feature has as much to do with the pressures of Welsh hill farming as it does with the mechanics of armed resistance. Yet Resistanceis all the more intriguing for that. A hymn to the valleys sung over a meditation on the pressures of occupation, the film is unlike anything else you will see this season. Its originality just about compensates for its near-glacial pace.

Resistancebegins with the women of a Welsh valley rising to discover that their menfolk have all disappeared in the night. D-Day has failed and the Germans are advancing across the UK. When a detachment eventually arrives, it appears to be led by a class of "Good German".

A student of ancient history, Albrecht (Tom Wlaschiha) locates a prehistoric map in a damp cave, but refuses to hand it over to Himmler’s culture bandits. As the occupation creeps on, he makes friends with Sarah (Andrea Riseborough), a spirited farmer, and appears to warm to the defeated but defiant citizens. Visions of the Eastern Front keep him awake at night.

Though Resistance(a loaded title) does feature outbreaks of violence, the film is at its best when detailing the uneasy relationship between the German captain and the Welsh woman. The grey skies tremble with damp misery. The hills slump their shoulders in defeat. Riseborough's downturned features suggest that gravity is working at twice its normal strength.

The ends result is positively Russian in its dedication to sombre reflection. Then again, there's something of the great novelist John Cowper Powys in its taste for country life. One thing is certain: nobody is likely to confuse this promising debut with Where Eagles Dare.