Poignant, perceptive and unrelenting, this may be bleak, like all great drama, it is ultimately uplifting as well.

Windsor's taciturn and stoic central performance is both haunting and affecting, framed by Morton's deliberate, even stately direction.

The camera is held at kiddie height, the close-ups are all Lucy's, and the adult world is viewed with deep suspicion as a cold and unforgiving place. It's a tough watch, and justifiably uncompromising.

While The Unloved succeeds in creating a uniquely sparse, melancholy atmosphere, it is a success that requires the sacrifice of the kind of necessary emotional connection that such social realist dramas need to be truly moving.