Even before its release last week, The Woodsman, starring Kevin Bacon as a paedophile on parole after 12 years in prison, had provoked an outcry. National listeners' group Mediawatch urged the government to ban it for showing paedophiles as "normal".

But the film has won praise from adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse and child protection experts for its complex and disturbing portrayal of the difficulties posed by sex offenders living in the community.