Dutch director Nanouk Leopold’s seventh feature provides uncommonly vivid views of southern Irish scenery and the driven, haunted woman (Natasha O’Keeffe) at the story’s core.

A slow-burn thriller about reckoning with trauma and containing the furies that threaten to reduce everything to ashes, Whitetail is rife with the same tightly coiled tension that exists deep within its protagonist. It’s just as remarkable for its vivid portrayal of its Irish setting, which director Leopold captures with great authenticity.

Whitetail benefits most of all from an extraordinary performance by O’Keeffe, an actor best known for her parts on such TV hits as Peaky Blinders and The Wheel of Time yet whose own formidable presence in the lead makes the experience of seeing Leopold’s film even richer.