Nusret arrives in a remote Turkish village with his two children in order to visit his father, retired forester Faik. But the family reunion is gradually disrupted by a group of local nomads who appear on their extensive plot of land. As the summer holidays unfold, the distant threat lurks nearer.

Deftly toying with the tropes of the horror movie before edging its way towards allegorical, psychological thriller, this nerve-jangling debut slinks between arthouse and genre with sure-footed ease. If Nuri Bilge Ceylan ever made a film with John Carpenter, it might well look something like this.