We get the sense that the tension between the locals and someone like Meinhard can never fully be resolved.

There's swagger and bluster. There are echoes of Athina Rachel Tsangari's Chevalier, and at least one purposeful reference to Claire Denis's Beau Travail.

Like its title, "Western" is both startlingly direct and full of resonance and ambiguity.

The actors all deliver gritty, earthy performances that feel sometimes startlingly authentic. This means that most of the dialog feels improvised, with the language barrier adding layers of intrigue.

None of the obvious story turns are taken which makes it interesting. It's too long but confident and interesting, albeit niche market.

A meandering but quietly absorbing tale of comradeship amid social tensions.

Valeska Grisebach's Western is a more stately, sombre, slow-moving affair, which upends the tropes of the western genre by removing them to a novel setting - southern Bulgaria, to be precise.

Like the Hollywood westerns it references, it's a story of economic imperialism as an assertion of male dominance, the political implications of colonisation hanging in the air like stale sweat.

A thoughtful tale of identity, flawed masculinity and the way past actions constantly haunt the present.

The film's keen observations on male behaviour and displays of aggression and machismo, both individually and in groups, revealing truthful insights into the male mindset and body language, which provide Western with potent resonance.

Meinhard becomes increasingly enigmatic - was he a soldier? Is he a liar? What does he really want? - and [Valeska] Grisebach, sometimes infuriatingly, offers us tantalising hints of a drama that never quite fully unfolds.

Western's refreshing rejection of formula and celebration of cross-cultural connection proves highly resonant in an increasingly divided world.

Western is allied to Claire Denis's Beau Travail and Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy, which observe the intimacy of all-male spaces. Grisebach too explores the ways men labour, act and interact, their unspoken and brittle bonds.

Returning to film-making after a decade away, Valeska Grisebach confirms the good impression made with Be My Star (2001) and Longing (2006) with this bruising clash of macho cultures.

The point of the title is to invoke a parallel, conjure a certain tradition. But it's the aggression and naked tensions of the genre that Grisebach has her eye on.