Domhnall Gleeson continues an impressive run of form with THE INCOMER, a deft comedy with appeal for anyone who enjoyed the bucolic absurdities of FATHER TED or the Schrute farm from the US version of THE OFFICE.

Gleeson plays pencil-pushing bureaucrat Daniel, arriving meekly by boat to a supposedly uninhabited Scottish island to remove two unruly inhabitants, the robust sibling pair of Isla (Gayle Rankin) and Sandy (Grant O’Rourke), who have lived away from the mainlanders for decades, keenly practicing their vigorous defence techniques in readiness for an unwelcome incursion. It’s a role that showcases Gleeson’s particular gift for gentle, put-upon decency, and writer/director Louis Paxton’s film gives him room to develop Daniel from a meek functionary into someone genuinely grappling with loneliness and isolation.

As the invading mainland force become shared enemies to the trio, survivalist Callum (Emun Elliott) offers a stark contrast to Daniel’s gentle willingness to understand, while John Hannah is almost unrecognisable in his bizarre role as an aquatic sea-creature. Gleeson anchors the film’s brisk comic satire of Scottish bureaucracy and inward-looking identity with real warmth, marking THE INCOMER as another confident addition to a filmography that continues to widen in range and ambition.