A woman returning to her village in rural Taiwan following her father’s death has little time to mourn as she becomes embroiled in the seven-day funeral ritual tradition. It is only as she sits in the airport smoking room in Hong Kong that longing for her father overwhelms her. Through the impenetrable smoke, her father seems to appear sitting next to her and is telling her to move forward with her life.

If Steve McQueen’s first film, Hunger, was about a man with no freedom, Shame is

an examination of a character who has all the western freedoms and who uses his body to create his own prison. Brandon (Michael Fassbender) is a young successful thirty-something living comfortably in his apartment in New York. As a distraction from day-to-day cubicle life, he seduces women, juggling a string of doomed romances and one-night stands.

The tightly controlled rhythm of Brandon's life begins to collapse, however, when his wayward, unruly sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) arrives for an unannounced visit. Her disruptive prescence in his life propels Brandon further into New York's dark underbelly as he tries to escape her need for connection and the memories she stands for.

Shame is a compelling and timely examination of the nature of need, how we live our lives and the experiences that shape us.