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The news is full of high-profile cases of men accused of sexually abusing women, then denying it or claiming diminished responsibility.
Una treads the same ground, focusing on a woman who confronts a predator years after he abused her as a teenager and his attempts to "gaslight" her into doubting her own recollection of events.
The debut feature from Australian theatre and opera director Benedict Andrews, it was adapted for the screen by Scottish playwright David Harrower from his own one act play, Blackbird.
Teaming up with talented cinematographer Thimios Bakatakis, whose collaborations with fellow Greek directors on films like Attenberg, Dogtooth and The Lobster suggest an aptitude for troubled psychological states, Andrews manages — for the most part — to make this talky drama more than filmed theatre.
He builds pressure-cooker tension in the soundproofed staff room where the determined but traumatised Una (Rooney Mara) confronts the slightly paunchy Ray (Ben Mendelsohn).
He reacts nervously — clearly spooked — but also tries to be soothing. He loved her, he says. It was a one-off thing and now he's rebuilding his life after a stint in prison.
But flashbacks present a starker image of his manipulations.
It's not long before a present day subplot of forced redundancies at Ray's work suggests he is not to be trusted.
It's a device straight from the Ken Loach playbook, and a young co-worker (Riz Ahmed) finds himself coming to terms with Ray's duplicity at the same time as the audience.
When the film breaks out of the warehouse and moves to Ray's home, a shot of neatly arranged canapes and champagne on the kitchen counter invites you to expect table-flipping catharsis.
And at the cocktail party that ensues, the inevitable happens, with a slight twist. It's handled not flawlessly — but well enough to make a point.
The lingering question posed by Mendelsohn's performance is whether or not Ray is a good man who suffered a lapse in judgement.
If you believe Ray for even a split second, and the film is good enough to make you believe him, you've had a peek at the way this kind of predation works.
You've fallen for a man who said he had nothing but the best intentions; you've been gaslighted too.
Speaking with The Final Cut, Mendelsohn explained that gaslighting is the perfect way to describe the film.
"It has come into the zeitgeist so heavily," he says.
"[Una] is absolutely designed to do that. That's its power in terms of trying to pull back to the wider moral questions. I think that's its triumph."
Topics: thriller-films, arts-and-entertainment, director, film-movies, united-kingdom
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