Jade (Vicky Knight) is a young woman who has just been released from hospital after a vicious attack, whereby a disgruntled ex-lover thought it would be perfectly acceptable to throw acid in her face, leaving her permanently scarred. Now reentering society, Jade finds it even more difficult to assimilate back into her normal life, because she is no longer perceived as the attractive young woman she was once. She tries extremely hard to rebuild her life and continue being a good mother to her daughter, and an upstanding citizen (she even manages to find a job that will allow her to make use of her natural skills without having to deal with the anxiety of being in constant contact with strangers), but she finds it still daunting to be viewed as anything less than a disfigured, ill-formed anomaly, in a world where someone like her can be called “a monster” without any hesitation. Jade ventures into a path of self-destruction, where she tries to distract herself with hard-drinking and excessive partying, in the hopes that she can momentarily escape from her banal, unhappy existence that was caused entirely by someone else who shows absolutely no remorse for ruining her life.

Sacha Polak’s English-language debut Dirty God is an astonishing achievement, a social realist fable that is as profoundly moving as it is utterly heartbreaking. This is the kind of film that is unfortunately too underseen – despite having the ability to change hearts and minds, and displaying having a general tendency towards true resonance, it just fades into obscurity and doesn’t occupy any discernible position of acclaim or widespread viewership. It is a film that deserves to be seen and celebrated, because what Polak does here is quite astounding, crafting a film that tells a beautiful story without ever being heavy-handed, showing us a side of life that will be able to extract genuine sympathy from even the most the cynical and bigoted of individuals, and find us emotionally connecting with this beautifully heartbreaking story. It may not be the most comfortable film to watch, but it has a general empathy for its story, and a beautiful approach to the themes of feeling like an outsider, and is one of the year’s most powerful films, a singularly unforgettable experience that is quite shockingly brilliant, even when it is highly unsettling.

The film is centred on Vicky Knight’s portrayal as Jade, and this is undeniably one of the year’s most moving performances, a gorgeous representation of a woman trying to put her life back together while battling external forces of hatred, bigotry and sometimes even overt fear. A victim of an arson attempt in her childhood, Knight clearly understands the emotional journey someone like her character here undergoes. The actress, who is also making her film debut in Dirty God, finds a way to portray the character that is never once heavy-handed or unnecessarily excessive – her performance is one of great restraint, but deep honesty. Whether it is in the scenes where she is trying to genuinely improve her life through attempting to be a good mother to a daughter no one believes she is capable of taking care of, or when she’s trying to get a job to make a living, or in her cathartic moments of reckless excess, where her partying and abuse of substances are thus repurposed less as ways of having fun, and more of a method of distracting herself from the harsh reality of her situation. Knight is a revelation in this film, and her performance is only bolstered in effectiveness by the realization that nearly everything she is representing here is rooted in truth – she has been open in the past about her struggled with her disformity, and how it took her a very long time to ever be able to come to terms with her situation. Its a beautifully honest performance from an actress whose talent proves to not only be effective, but entirely necessary.

Even putting aside the fact that Knight is astonishing in the film, Dirty God is a brilliant work of representation. In casting an actress with the same affliction as the main character, Polak is making a pivotal step towards larger inclusivity, whereby these stories are not necessarily made with bankable stars that can bring in the box office returns, but newcomers who have experience with these kinds of stories, and in  being cast, are able to not only have the chance to tell their own story but also be an inspiration to others, showing that anyone can make it far in the industry with the right tenacity. Knight’s performance is most definitely brilliant, but that’s inconsequential when we realize how utterly brave she was in taking a role like this – to put yourself on display in such a way, to a global audience, and have to revisit the harrowing experiences of your past (and perhaps even your present) takes a lot of sincere bravery, and this makes this film even more powerful, and allows it to extend much further than just being a touching drama, but a poignant social statement. Inclusivity is obviously a major issue in society now, so while Dirty God is a relatively small film, it is essentially a pioneering work in its own way, introducing us to a story told from the perspective of someone who isn’t only given the chance to lead a film, but in doing so, serving as an inspiration to all of those who have experienced similar things. There is a certain authenticity to this film that elevates it further than anything more superficial would.

Dirty God is not a complex film, but it is one that takes on a very resonant subject and presents it in a way that is simple but meaningful. The core of the film is the experience of being an outsider in an unforgiving world, and the jarring notion that one small incident can permanently destroy someone’s life. Jade is scarred physically, but she is able to recover and build her life up again – physically, she comes to terms with her affliction and is willing to move on, having gone through the process of hiding, and now choosing to embrace who she is. The problem is that the world is not ready for this level of confidence, and she is frequently torn down by those who just don’t understand or have the capacity for empathy. This is a film made for those who are different in a world that is just too myopic to understand that beauty is not skin-deep, and that one shouldn’t ever be judged just on their exterior, but on their virtues and who they are on the inside. For someone like Jade, the scars may heal, but the cauterizing nature of the vitriolic words of others, whether strangers or those in her life, are far more harmful, and much more difficult to mend. Its a haunting film, and Polak does exceptionally well in exploring the roots of Jade’s struggle and her insecurities when trying to assimilate back into society – vicious attacks by strangers, fearful screams from children and worst of all, the shocked and disgusted looks of her friends and family, who cannot help from hide their reaction. These are all contributing factors to her inner turmoil, and precisely what makes her lowest moments so heartbreaking, and her eventual acceptance and realization that she has worth all the more triumphant.

Dirty God is one of the year’s most powerful films. A steadfast exploration of the struggles of a woman trying to rebuild her life in the aftermath of a traumatic incident that leaves her both physically and emotionally scarred. Vicky Knight is astonishing in the lead role, delivering one of the year’s most profoundly affecting, haunting performances as Jade, who is trying to just find her place in a world that has rejected her and forced her into the shadows. It is a tale of resilience and tenacity, as well as an ode to the fact that the human spirit, regardless of how many times one is pushed down, tends to find a way back up again. It is an honestly brilliant work of social realism that may be truly harrowing and extremely heartwrenching but is ultimately truly effective, and beautifully poetic in its representation of a struggle very rarely portrayed with such empathy and honesty. It is a gorgeous film and a profoundly moving work that lingers with the audience, breaking our hearts and rebuilding it again as we follow this genuinely resonant journey of a woman just trying her best to find her own place in a world, even after she’s told she doesn’t belong in it, and suddenly realizing there is nothing in the world more powerful than someone who has been through hell and back, and still has the strength to find confidence in the innermost recesses of their souls, and the power to embrace everything about who they are, because in the end, it’s our imperfections that make us the most beautiful.