Emotionally frozen, half-Inuit, half-American scientist Smilla (Julia Ormond) starts to thaw when her talent for 'reading' snow convinces her that the death of a six-year-old boy in Copenhagen was murder and not an accident - and she turns detective to prove it.

Bille August's taut mystery intrigues, from its spectacular crashing meteor opening, to the explosive climax.

It's offbeat, satisfying and consistently compelling.