POLISH-born director Pawel Pawlikowski has created a quintessential English movie with this witty and intelligent look at obsessive love between two teenage girls.

Loosley based on the novel by Helen Cross, it stars brilliant newcomers Natalie Press and Emily blunt as Mona and Tamsin, two lasses from a village in the Dales who form an intense relationship during a long, hot summer.

Downtrodden Mona lives with her brother, Phil (Paddy Considine) who has become Born Again and has turned the family pub into a place for religious meetings. Tamsin is rich, spoilt, a fantasist and hedonist and lives in a stately pile.

These opposites instantly attract after a chance meeting while Tamsin is out riding her horse and Mona is bringing home a scooter with no engine.

The physical side of their relationship is generally glossed over and the film concentrates more on the emotions.

The superb script conveys gritty realism and almost ethereal decadence while the languid cinematography has a dream-like quality at times.

As we all know, summer must end and although there is a sort of a twist at the end, it is somewhat expected.

But this film deservedly won the Best British Film award at the Edinburgh film festival and at 90 minutes long, is eminently watchable.

PGW