Daniel Kokotajlo says he is delighted by the number of former Jehovah’s Witnesses who are coming to see his film and thanking him for showing their lives on screen

A teenage Jehovah’s Witness is peering at a magazine, studying photos of smiling children who are being praised for refusing blood transfusions on account of their faith. Above the girl’s head dangles a sword of Damocles — she suffers from anaemia. This scene unfolds in the critically acclaimed new film, Apostasy, which follows a devout single mother and her two daughters as they are wrenched apart by unbending religion.

Daniel Kokotajlo, 37, the film’s director and writer, was brought up in the Christian sect and clearly recalls reading that magazine as a boy: There was a feature “called Youths Who Put God First. It’s really disturbing. I remember being horrified and filled with anxiety.” A number of the children featured had died.

Also anxiety-inducing was