Ole Bornedal’s cryptic mixture of marital drama, horror and film noir would make most sense as an hors d’oeuvre, to be sampled just before seeing Lars von Trier’s Antichrist.

Certainly, it’s doubtful whether Bornedal would have made it without the influence of Von Trier — and even if he hasn’t the capacity to shock and disturb, he has a similar determination to whack you across the head with Danish angst and technical prowess.

Jonas (the impressive Anders W Berthelsen) is a crime scene photographer, unhappily married with children, whose unreliable old car causes a hysterical woman to crash (Rebecka Hemse). When he guiltily visits her in hospital where she lies in a coma, he is persuaded by her rich family to pretend to be the lover she met in Vietnam.

When she finally gains consciousness, having lost her memory, he is obliged to continue the deception and proceeds not only to fall for her but to make her pregnant in the ward.

That, he thinks, is the end of the suburban hell of his marriage. But it isn’t since the girl’s actual lover, a brutal psychopath (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), comes home to claim her.

Basically it’s melodrama, and sometimes absurdist. But there’s a sense of humour too and while it trips over itself in the effort to be original, it is an impressive piece of film-making all the same.