“I don’t like goodbyes,” tearfully observes one of the characters in director Mahalia Belo’s horribly believable survival drama set in the aftermath of a catastrophic storm, which floods vast swathes of the UK and renders cities, including London, uninhabitable.

Those farewells are never-ending in The End We Start From, adapted by screenwriter Alice Birch from Megan Hunter’s novel.

First to go are people’s homes and livelihoods, submerged in the rising water. Then common decency and compassion perish as the threat of starvation tears apart the saturated fabric of society, pitting survivors against each other for dwindling resources.

In this bleak wasteland of sewage, squalor and walls plastered with posters of the missing-presumed-dead, Jodie Comer delivers a staggering performance as a nameless new mother committed to protecting her baby from Mother Nature’s unrelenting fury.

Her nerve-jangling cross-country odyssey relies on the kindness of strangers, including another resourceful parent (Katherine Waterston) and a father (Benedict Cumberbatch) tormented by the loss of his family.

Composer Anna Meredith’s atmospheric score cascades like falling rain as the perfect accompaniment to scenes of loss.

In the eye of the storm is Comer, delivering one gut-punch of raw emotion after another, often without uttering a word. She is truly a force of nature.

THE END WE START FROM IS OUT NOW IN CINEMAS