This debut feature by writer-director Luna Carmoon is an extraordinary and original psychological study that takes evident delight in its refusal to be easily classified. A mix of kitchen sink, coming-of-age and postmodern family drama, Hoard explores how the impact of longing, disconnection and loss together shape the life choices of a rebellious but far from robust young woman.

In 1980s Lewisham, seven-year-old Maria (Lily-Beau Leach) lives a chaotic life with her loving but dysfunctional mother Cynthia, a compulsive hoarder. At school, she’s seen as an oddball and an outsider and spends most of her time caught up in Cynthia’s obsessive rituals. When Social Services intervene after a domestic crisis, a disconsolate Maria is placed in the family home of a warm-hearted foster mum. Ten years on, seventeen-year-old Maria (now played by Saura Lightfoot-Leon) is still seen as a weirdo by her peers, and is struggling with her identity. As she navigates the challenges of adolescence, her small social circle provides invaluable support. But any hope of stability disappears when the return of Michael (Joseph Quinn), a former foster child, becomes the catalyst for an explosive and intense romantic entanglement. But for Maria, despite the messy fallout of this abnormal affair, the experience ultimately proves cathartic.

Beautifully evoked and shot, with riveting and risky performances by Lightfoot-Leon and Quinn, Hoard blends life-affirming, alarming and awkward moments in a wild and unpredictable tale. Carmoon’s distinctive storytelling and visual style immediately mark her out as an auteur to watch. It’s easy to see why Hoard won the backing of both BBC Films and the British Film Institute. This is unusual, unsettling, and irresistibly vivid, next-generation British filmmaking.

HOARD is available in the UK now on a limited cinema release.