Throw another log on to the fire because the story I’m about to tell blows as cold as an Arctic wind. The tale begins with a curse. A beautiful girl, Michelle Yeoh, is told by a venerable crone that horror and tragedy will befall any handsome beefcake unfortunate enough to catch her eye. According to my trusty sources, beefcake has rarely been spotted north of Elgin; it would be a miracle to find it two miles from the North Pole. But curses, like films and religion, have a dread power to imprison those who believe.

The prophesy is enough for Yeoh to seek isolation. When the magnificent thriller of Asif Kapadia crunches through the icy sea to discover the cruel tricks that time has played upon the middle-aged Yeoh, she has morphed into Ray Mears: a hard-as-nails beachcomber with survival skills second to none.

The performance by Yeoh is hypnotic. Her husky dogs and her adopted daughter (a terrific turn by Michelle Krusiec) are clearly the only companions she has known for many frozen years. The two women live in wordless isolation. They gut fish during the day and plait each other’s hair at night. The arrival of a mercenary soldier (Sean Bean) is the unwelcome reminder of the real world. A nervous Yeoh discovers Bean glued to the tundra, half dead. She isn’t sure whether to stick a knife into him or save him. It’s an exquisite scene. Bean repays her kindness by teasing Yeoh’s infatuated daughter, and sets in motion a sexual drama over which he has no control.

The friction in Yeoh’s cramped tent is electric. Bean is the perfect stranger, he is grateful, but he gives nothing away. You can almost smell the guilt and blood. Krusiec gets drunk on the compliments of the craggy soldier and melts under his touch. Yeoh is tense and silent; inwardly raging at Bean’s intimacy with her daughter. Kapadia’s camera is always at a studied, wary distance. The scenic shots are extraordinary, though not pretty. There’s a sense of slide and decay in the pictures of crumbling volcanic cliffs and dirty glacial ice. A scene glimpsed from Yeoh’s fishing boat of a grim port, clearly on its knees, has the sulphurous whiff of Apocalypse Now.

Kapadia has had a couple of stumbles since his remarkable debut feature The Warrior. Far North is a terrific return to form for the young British director. He has an exceptional feel for mythic stories and the way that they can absorb and express the most poisonous realities. He doesn’t shrink from shock or brutality. Indeed, the final ghastly twist, though fully earned, is barely watchable.

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