Unless Ivanna and Alex can persuade her to return, they must shun her completely. This challenge becomes more painful when their family is faced with another heartbreaking test of faith.
The director's sonic austerity and sensual attention to people, moorland vistas and rustling canopies of leaves conjures a rich world around the Whitlings.
A scathing critique of inhumanity in the name of religion - in this case, Jehovah's Witnesses - made all the more chilling by its drab colorlessness and mute suffocation.
It is a piercingly well-observed and heartbreakingly sad drama, but above all, impressively restrained, even when the small, stressed family unit is struck by tragedy.
The lack of music emphasises the religion's starkness. The pared-down performances do more of the same. A disturbing, unflinching debut. One of the year's best British films.
Respectful yet sharply critical, the film's specificity about a world rarely seen on screen is gripping, but it's the silent pain of Finneran's performance as the fissures start to appear in Ivanna's life that linger longest.
Finneran is stoic and mesmerising in a film awash with resentment, duty and an almost comical level of cruelty - perfectly brought to life by all involved.
