Its centre holds, largely because of Schoenaerts's capacity to elicit our sympathy despite everything.

It's compelling, and Schoenaerts is a treat as this taciturn knot of angst and muscle tone, but Michaël R Roskam's film is short on humanity and dash.

This thriller about a steroid-boosting farmer lost in the moral maze of Belgium's mafia underworld is a stylish, meaty treat.

Writer/director Michael Roskam avoids falling victim to familiarity by sifting through the grime of his vice-ridden, chemically-charged characters to explore the inseparable link between the passions that drive them and the consequences that await them.