You are unlikely to see a movie about incest made as sensitively and tastefully as “Womb.’’ And although the characters speak English, the film is firmly anchored in European sensibilities, thanks to its Hungarian director, Benedek Fliegauf.
The story is set in a barren village on the North Sea, home of little Tommy and Rebecca. The two children vow eternal love, but Rebecca soon departs for Tokyo to be with her mother. Twelve years later, the now-grown Rebecca returns, and she and Tommy take up where they left off — until he is killed by a car.
Devastated, Rebecca decides to clone her dead lover (who wouldn’t under the circumstances?), and so she is implanted with genetic material that allows her to give birth to Tommy’s perfect duplicate. Before we know it, he has grown up to be exactly like his deceased father. Imagine the possibilities.
Fliegauf could have gone for cheap horror and exploitation, but he’s from Hungary, not Hollywood. Which means he proceeds with dignity. He’s helped by nuanced performances by Eva Green (“The Dreamers”) as the adult Rebecca, Matt Smith (TV’s “Doctor Who”) as her husband and her grown son, and Lesley Manville, a favorite of Mike Leigh’s, as Tommy’s mother. Peter Szatmari contributes devastatingly beautiful cinematography.
Be advised that “Womb” proceeds at a glacial pace, with lots of meaningful gazes, but that only makes the proceedings more haunting.