In 1650 England, Fanny, a mother silently trapped in an oppressive marriage, sees her life and her home upset by the discovery of a couple of naked fugitives in her barn...

After an eleven year leave, Thomas Clay (The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael) takes a blast at historical cinema by directing, writing and editing this galvanizing Fanny Lye Deliver'd of which he also composed the score on period instruments. And if 17th century England, immersed in puritanism and witch hunts, still inspires many filmmakers, Clay’s vision is miles away from an antiquated reconstruction. Though meticulously authentic, he’s more in line with his iconoclastic compatriots - like Ken Russell- who consider history as a modern tool, a subversive mirror of contemporaneity. Very explicit in its depiction of sex and violence, Fanny Lye Deliver'd tells of an enfranchisement through a very actual stance on patriarchy and how to break free from it. The grain of sand that jams the machine? A blasphemous Adam and Eve who take shelter in Fanny's home (the dazzling Maxine Peake) and open her eyes on life. Shot in 35mm, photographed by Giorgos Arvanitis, Theo Angelopoulos's lead operator, Fanny Lye Deliver'd reveals itself to be a galvanising thriller, an enthralling western in the land of quakers.