Olivia Colman takes the lead in this offbeat and magic-real tale, playing a spinster fisherwoman who hires the local basket maker (Peter Dinklage) to make her a husband.

Against his better judgment (and inspired by his own quite queer desire), he weaves her a superman of sorts (played by Alexander Skarsgård) – strapping, handsome, sexually attentive and notably DIY-handy. It takes a little while for the villagers to accept this peculiar union, but once word gets around of the multifaceted prowess of this ‘Mr Wicker’ (the fisherwoman’s screams of pleasure can be heard for miles), he becomes an object of desire for other women of the village, all of whom are saddled with some pretty ordinary blokes (slobs, boozers and the sexually disinterested). Mr Wicker – objectified and flammable – soon finds himself in a world of trouble, not least from his fisherwoman wife, who has a violently jealous streak.

Wicker is based on Ursula Wills-Jones’ short story The Wicker Husband. Taking aim at the patriarchy in a parallel world in which wives are entirely defined by their relationship to their husbands, co-writers and directors Alex Huston Fischer...