Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen’s second feature reunites him with Hunger star Michael Fassbender for another uncompromising portrait of human struggle, this time with sex addiction.

It is surprisingly easy for Brandon (Fassbender), a successful businessman in New York, to keep his private life a secret. Even when hard-core pornography is discovered on his work computer, no one suspects he is responsible. On the surface his existence seems clinical and controlled, but he lives to indulge his fantasies, flirting with strangers on the subway and participating in adult live-action porn sites. Into the frame comes Sissy (Carey Mulligan), Brandon’s optimistic sister, a messed-up lounge singer who has nowhere else to stay. Where Brandon is controlled and controlling, Sissy is vulnerable and unpredictable. Her arrival unravels his façade of normality as their dark family secrets threaten to tumble out into his ordered world.

No stranger to challenging roles, Fassbender (last seen at DCA in Jane Eyre) turns in a performance as brave as any you will see on screen not just this year, but perhaps ever, and he may very well earn himself an Oscar nod in the process. Graphic sex aside, it is actually the cocktail of pathos and anger which will keep your eyes glued to Fassbender for the entire film. And Mulligan more than matches him; with Sissy, she has graduated into the big league. Shame is a raw piece of work: mature and astonishingly moving, it’s a film you will never forget.