IN writer/director Asghar Farhadi’s family drama, Laura (Penelope Cruz) and her two children have come to the family’s vineyard and winery near Madrid for her sister’s wedding.

It’s a happy time, full of dancing, food, wine and family. Laura meets up with her one-time boyfriend Paco (Javier Bardem). The fiesta goes into the night. Laura’s teenaged daughter Irene (Carla Campra) is packed off to bed while the grown-ups party on. The lights fail. Some of the men go off to get a generator from the vineyard. The power comes back on. And an envelope arrives. We have your daughter. If you tell the police, she will die.

Following that joyous introduction, Farhadi’s film delivers a dramatic potpourri of tension, worry, anger, frustration and grief in 133 minutes of stylish energy and complexity that will satisfy the most demanding viewer expectations. It looks good. Its little details make sense. It brings on that wonderful feeling that comes when, of two possible directions, the story follows the one that you realise it must choose but wish it hadn’t.

I like a film that does that so respectfully of its audience’s intelligence.

At Dendy and Capitol 6