REVIEWED - KING'S GAME/KONGEKABALE: ALTHOUGH set specifically within the corridors of power in present-day Copenhagen, King's Game is a political thriller marked with a universality that will resonate with audiences elsewhere, not least on either side of the Irish Sea.

Based on a Danish novel by a former spin doctor, King's Game is set in the weeks running up to a general election, as the opposition party is leading in the polls and its popular leader is seriously injured in a car accident. The party's liberal deputy leader (Nastja Arcel) is regarded as the obvious successor, but an ambitious colleague seizes on this opportunity for personal advancement.

It helps that he has the full support of the party's spin doctor (Lars Mikkelsen), an utterly ruthless operator when it comes to political machinations. In his scheme to smear the deputy leader, he exploits the inexperience of a newly appointed parliamentary reporter (Anders W Berthelsen), who unwittingly becomes the pawn in his devious game of media manipulation.

Director Nikolaj Arcel makes one of the most impressive directing debuts of recent years with this intelligent, hard-hitting drama, which is assembled with remarkable assurance and cinematic flair and works effectively both as a taut thriller and as a scathing commentary on the lust for - and abuse of - political power.

Arcel artfully blends the cynicism of the excellent 2003 BBC series State of Play with the paranoia-steeped atmosphere of the outstanding post-Watergate US thrillers, and his film is played with conviction by a consummate cast. Significantly, the people who actually vote for these political representatives are shut out of this scenario, suggesting that they do not even merit being used as pawns.

Uncompromising to the end, this provocative picture leaves a bitter aftertaste.