There's not much here for even the most ardent fan of overdetermined political fables.

Its declarations are too easy, its conclusions too neat.

The screenplay is written by J.M. Coetzee, adapting his own 1980 novel with a strikingly free hand but the message left intact - the eternal awful irony of which Them should really fear which Us.

The datedness of the novel’s politics are swallowed by Guerra, who stages scenes with a typical stillness that, filled with croaky theatrical performances, becomes a non-style worthy of bad prestige TV.