Open your eyes to Crude Awakenings, a slick new British drama about the dirty business of oil, corporate corruption and the price of selling out.

Written and directed by Omri Dayan, the film enters the murky world of big energy through Ava Rice, an ambitious PR strategist who takes a job at a notorious oil conglomerate. The offer comes with the promise of a life-changing promotion, but the closer Ava gets to success, the harder it becomes to ignore what is happening around her.

As a mysterious sickness begins spreading through the firm, Ava finds herself caught between career ambition, financial security and her own conscience. The dream job starts to look less like a way up and more like a trap, forcing her to decide how much of herself she is willing to lose in exchange for power.

The film stars Django Chan-Reeves, known for The End of the F*ing World and Industry, as Ava Rice, alongside Gary Fannin, whose credits include Outlander and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and Doug Colling from Star City.

Described as a tense and witty environmental drama, Crude Awakenings looks set to take aim at greenwashing, corporate spin and the polished public face of an industry built on uncomfortable truths. The press release puts it neatly: “The devil wears a suit and tie,” which feels about right for a story where the real horror may be hiding behind boardroom glass and carefully managed messaging.

For anyone drawn to sharp British drama with a topical edge, this sounds like one to keep an eye on. It is not hard to see the appeal of a film about a PR professional being pulled into the machinery of corporate damage control, especially when the company they are protecting may be doing more damage than anyone wants to admit.

Crude Awakenings arrives on digital from August 24, courtesy of Reel2Reel Films.