First look at Martin Freeman in "deeply affecting" drama with Caitríona Balfe

MUBI has released the trailer for A Long Winter, the new drama from All of Us Strangers and Looking's Andrew Haigh, on the same day it made its UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival.

The film focuses on a family living in remote, snowy Colorado, isolated from the rest of the world. The father is domineering, one of the sons is secretly gay, and the wife is beyond tired of her life. When she disappears, the film focuses on the before and after of the event, exploring the mysteries surrounding the family.

Haigh has assembled a strong cast for the film, including The Bear's Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Outlander's Caitríona Balfe, Heartstopper's Kit Connor, Gladiator II's Fred Hechinger, The Responder's Martin Freeman, and Reservation Dogs' D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai.

Related: UK film release dates

The film was first shown at Colorado's Telluride Film Festival in early September, before being screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, and will have its UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival tonight at 8.45pm.

Tickets for tonight and Saturday's screenings are sold out, but at the time of writing you can still get tickets for a lunchtime showing tomorrow if you're in the area.

Otherwise, the film will be released on 15 January in cinemas around of UK and Irish cinemas.

So far, A Long Winter has a solid 79% positive score on Rotten Tomatoes from 24 critic reviews.

Screen Daily called it a "low-key but deeply affecting picture" with "compelling" turns from its leads and "expert restraint" from its director.

Related: The Odyssey finally confirms digital release date after record-breaking cinema run

The Guardian's review dubbed the film "a poignant, subversive study of grief and desire" that's "fiercely acted and wonderfully shot".

"It's a film austere enough to risk alienating its audience, yet once you get onto its wavelength you stay right there, inside the movie’s world", Variety wrote, while TheWrap labelled it "a spooky and gently moving tale".

A Long Winter is being shown as the BFI London Film Festival this week, and will be released in UK cinemas on 15 January.

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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.