An unrelenting sadness permeates this new feature from underrated British filmmaker Simon Rumley. Exploring the dark heart of Bangkok’s sex tourism trade, it follows Father Daniel (Steve Oram) and his wife Pimpranan (Tinge Sue) after their daughter is abducted and led into a bleak world of exploitation and cruelty. Following the lurid vapour trails of Paul Schrader’s Hardcore, this is a meditation on the limits of faith when pitted against the inexplicable horror of human nature and of an underbelly where depravity and debasement are marketable commodities. Rumley (a director who has excelled at exploring the more extreme end of human nature) proves a deft hand with this difficult, morally fraught material, approaching his story with a matter-of-factness that sidesteps any dangers of sensationalism. 

Beyond its rejection of simple answers and a refreshing willingness to study a topic as repellent as images of child sexual abuse and those who make it, Rumley has a genre filmmaker’s eye for tight plotting that ensures narrative drive is never sacrificed to thematic rigour. Certain performers fail to match the strong material they’re given, but this is a career high for Steve Oram, who provides brief glimpses of light amongst Rumley’s artful despair. 

Crushed, Filmhouse, 17 August, 6pm & 6.15pm, 18 August, 9.15pm; Vue, 17 August, 9.15pm.