Kornel Mundruczó’s film has been dubbed the Hungarian Deliverance — but even John Boorman’s classic wasn’t shot as beautifully as this.

Matyas Erdely, his cinematographer, delivers a stunning vision of the desolate landscapes, rivers and islets of Hungary’s Delta region as this tragic story unfolds. Melodrama is never far away but it is kept at bay by the intricate precision of the director’s work and a screenplay for which Bela Tarr, Hungary’s leading auteur, was a consultant.

Silent young Mihail (Félix Lajkó) returns to the countryside of his birth to find his mother (Lili Monori). She is now a widow, living with Fauna, a daughter that Mihail never knew about (played by the excellent Orsolya Tóth), and a new man (Sándor Gáspár), who is not too friendly towards the interloper. He becomes more incensed when Fauna decides to help Mihail build a house on stilts in the middle of the river.

There is a sense that mother’s new man wants Fauna himself, and also that sister and brother will become lovers. This is too much for the men of the local village, even though mother says the girl is old enough to know her own mind. Inevitably, violence ensues.

Mundruczó makes this cautionary tale a study of cruelty and intolerance that burns slowly but to considerable effect. It is a story virtually told with visuals alone, and includes a rape scene shown in long shot which has emotional force but absolutely no prurience. Delta is an extraordinary film which rightly won an international critics’ prize at Cannes last year.