The Childhood of a Leader

This challenging psychodrama, with a small but much-hyped role for Robert Pattinson, chronicles the childhood experiences of a future dictator. Beginning with a blast of ferocious orchestral music, it takes place at the end of the First World War, focusing on an affluent family who have recently moved to a large house just outside Paris. The father (Liam Cunningham) is always busy with his work as an aide to American president Woodrow Wilson - there to sign the Treaty of Versailles - leaving his German wife (Bérénice Bejo of The Artist) to discipline their seven-year-old son (Tom Sweet). As time passes, the boy becomes increasingly wilful and defiant, resulting in an ongoing power struggle between him and his parents. This is where the film is most effective, with Sweet providing a disquieting performance as the little sociopath at the centre of the story. Actor-turned-director Brady Corbet (who also co-wrote the script) sets a pace that may be too deliberate for some viewers, and there are times when you feel as though very little is happening, but this is a bold, uncompromising film that gradually takes a hold.