There’s a special kind of magic that happens when a film feels like it could only have been made by one person, in one country, at one particular moment in time. The Incomer, the debut feature from Edinburgh-born writer-director Louis Paxton, is exactly that kind of film and it made a pitch-perfect choice to open the 79th Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Set on a remote, windswept island off the Scottish coast, the film follows 30-something siblings Isla and Sandy (Gayle Rankin and Grant O’Rourke) who live in near-total isolation as the only two residents of their windswept isle. They hunt seabirds, commune with mythic creatures, and guard their home from any and all outsiders with fierce, almost feral loyalty. Then, from the mainland, arrives Daniel: an awkward council worker dispatched by the government to uproot them from their homeland. Domhnall Gleeson plays him with perfectly calibrated haplessness, and the collision of these three isolated souls is where the film finds its beating heart.

A Folk Fairy Tale with Teeth

The Incomer functions as a kind of modern folk fairy tale with fantastical flourishes, but the focus always remains on inviting performances. Crammed with intriguingly strange characters and performed with aplomb by a wonderful cast, this terrific debut fuses surreal humour, warmth and pathos in a way that sneaks up on you. You think you’re watching a quirky comedy about bureaucratic absurdity, and then suddenly you’re quietly moved.