Set on a remote Scottish island, two siblings survive by hunting seabirds, retelling the stories of their ancestors, and defending the isle from dreaded ‘Incomers’. Their world is upended with the arrival of an awkward council worker who has come to uproot them from their homeland.

The Garden Cinema View:

British coastal cinema is now in its post-Ballad of Wallis Island phase, and inevitably, that will become a lazy point of comparison for reviewers everywhere (including here!).

But whilst The Incomer might involve an isolated island setting scantily populated by eccentrics, its a rather different, slightly darker, film. The self-raised, and virtually uncontacted siblings Isla and Sandy have more in common with Lanthimos’ Dogtooth family, or the Edies from Grey Gardens. The humour is deadpan, at times vaguely threatening, and ultimately rather sweet as mainland outsider Daniel (Domhnall Gleeson) starts to find a sense of belonging in this weird and wild family. Although the film drifts into an unnecessary action-showdown, the payoff is quite moving. And director Louis Paxton’s references to Orcadian folklore and the windswept Caithness locations give The Incomer its own briny flavour.  

Cast:
Domhnall Gleeson, Gayle Rankin, Grant O'Rourke, John Hannah