Rupert Jones directs his brother Toby in this downbeat, gloomily claustrophobic British psychological drama-thriller that could have come straight from the 1960s. It puts us inside the prison cell of the main character’s mind and, in time-honoured style, begins to blur the distinction between what’s real and what isn’t.

There’s an excellent sense of location here, along with very good actors giving very good performances, making up for the film’s twist ending, which is a bit exasperating as well as not entirely watertight in terms of consistency.

Carl (Jones) is a troubled man working as a gardener and living on his own in a council block, having just been released from prison. He has a difficult relationship with his mother Aileen – an excellent portrayal by Anne Reid – who to Carl’s dismay is planning to come and visit him. All this is complicated by an internet date that Carl has set up: a rendezvous with Abby (Sinead Matthews) whose designs on Carl are not entirely clear.

At its best, Kaleidoscope is like an unsettling dream featuring an Escher staircase that plunges infinitely and vertiginously downwards.