This micro-budget gem uses an urban Scotland of the night as the perfect backdrop for a moody psychological thriller; for this is a shadow world of isolated gamblers, economic migrants and desperate criminals.

We follow Mark, a hotel manager with a gambling problem whose alienation from his family is compounded by night shifts and petty theft. Obliquely, through a parallel point of view, we are introduced to the antagonist (Cal) as he too follows Mark before making his move and attempting to rob the hotel. The film becomes an intense two-hander as Mark and Cal await the safe's time-lock mechanism. A long night's journey into day ensues with violence, personal revelation and a great scene involving a set of safety deposit boxes. The blue light on their tense faces is inter cut with a split screen which depicts the hotel's surveillance system and serves to crank up the tension as the law makes its presence felt and Mark is brought out of his isolation.

A common problem with many self-financed films is that they can lose their way in artistic self-indulgence but Timelock's ambition is simple: to succeed as an intense, character-based thriller. This ambition is fulfilled thanks to an ever- increasing tension which is generated by a tight script, an unsettling sound-scape and the film's committed cast. Furthermore, a film that sustains a Noirish atmosphere for its entirety on such a small budget surely marks out its creator as film maker to watch in the future.

This movie should be called Time Waste, because that's a better description.

Whirled into a situation they are forced to wait out, TimeLock's key characters start to lose stability and stutter on their axes.

And just as a spinning top gets more fascinating the closer it gets to toppling, so the film grows more mesmerising as the gravity of waiting takes hold.

Mixing direct POVs, deliberately awkward visuals and depersonalising footage, David Griffiths excellently achieves an increasing sense of instability as his characters careen.

This is a taught, careful film from a director with an ice-cold eye for how things can push a man off balance.