This enigmatic little Greek nightmare about a dysfunctional family is pitched halfway between horror and satire. Three "children" (though they look to be in their early 20s) live their lives holed up in an expansive villa, where they are constantly fed misinformation by their parents - the word for saltcellar is "telephone" and cats are ravening beasts from outside who will devour them. They remain in a state of innocence, ignorance and fear until a woman brought into the home by "Father" (no names are used) in order to provide sex for "Son" upsets the weird dynamic. Reminiscent of the work of Michael Haneke and Lars von Trier, director Yorgos Lanthimos's film is disquieting, provocative and either frustratingly ambiguous or richly allegorical depending on your point of view. And because of a couple of extremely graphic but entirely unerotic sex scenes and a few moments of explosive violence, it's recommended for those with a reasonably strong constitution.

Three teenagers are confined to an isolated country estate that could very well be on another planet. The trio spend their days listening to endless homemade tapes that teach them a whole new vocabulary. Any word that comes from beyond their family abode is instantly assigned a new meaning. Hence 'the sea' refers to a large armchair and 'zombies' are little yellow flowers. Having invented a brother whom they claim to have ostracized for his disobedience, the uber-controlling parents terrorize their offspring into submission.