Custody

No one does heavy-duty domestic drama quite like the French, and this feature debut of director Xavier Legrand (elaborating on the plot of his Oscar-nominated 2013 short Just before Losing Everything) hurls you headlong into the bitterest of child custody battles. Legrand's direction is unfussy, and all the more effective for it, but it's the acting from Léa Drucker (as the mother), Denis Ménochet (as the abusive husband/dad) and Thomas Gioria (as their son) that really transforms Custody into something nail-bitingly special. The subject matter won't be to everyone's taste, but for more adventurous viewers this is something to be savoured, if not always comfortably.