The Beguiled: Initial Cannes reaction suggests Sofia Coppola's latest is best-received since Lost in Translation

The film has been one of the film festival's most-anticipated titles ​​

The long-awaited return of Sofia Coppola has arrived at Cannes following this morning's screening of The Beguiled.

The Lost in Translation filmmaker's latest feature offers a new take on a 1966 novel set in a Virginia women's boarding school in 1864 at the height of the Civil War.

Generating much attention has been the film's stellar cast comprised of Nicole Kidman - as headmistress Miss Martha Farnsworth - as well as Elle Fanning (Somewhere) and Coppola's Marie-Antoinette lead Kirsten Dunst.

The plot sees the women's world disrupted by the arrival of a wounded Union army soldier played by Colin Farrell who was the focus of a 1971 film starring Clint Eastwood. Coppola, however, shifted the focus onto “the dynamics between a group of women stuck together.”

Critics across the world - including The Independent's Kaleem Aftab - have provided their first-look reactions to The Beguiled, which you can see for yourself below.

The Beguiled will be released in UK cinemas on 14 July.