Nobody Has to Know

Saw this tonight , featured as a sneakprewiev at Gothenburg Filmfestival. It blew me away from the beginning with its low-key tone and exceptional acting. The beautiful and dramatic landscape of Scotland makes a perfect setting for this unique and highly moving love story. Bouli Lanners, director, writer and actor is such a great talent and his counterpart Michelle Fairley is also amazing. Blessed to find this gem.

Saw this at a film society in Oz. This is in an expertly done romance set in a severe but beautiful coastal landscape of a northern Scotland isle. The male and female leads, Bouli Lanners and Michelle Fairley both are listed as directors and Bouli also for screenplay. Dialogue is as sparse as the trees on the hills, but pleasantly sufficient. The characters and views reminded me a little of Babettes 'feasters', the stark cold scenery and dour people of a hard, high number, latitude.

Phil from Belgium is living and working on the island. After he suffers a minor stroke that causes amnesia, Millie falsely tells him he was previously in a relationship with her. As the story unfolds you feel the frustration of constricted feelings and too the warmth of their torturous release. A nice film, it makes me realize why I go to 'art movies'.

This film has won three awards to date--all deserving and correctly encapsulating the strengths of the film. Two awards were Silver Hugos for the Best Actor (Bouli Lanners) and the Best Actress (Michelle Fairley) at the Chicago film festival. (The two actors are two of three co-directors as well.) The third award was for the film's cinematography for Frank van den Eeden at the Oostende Film Festival. I am not sure, however, if a person who suffers a stroke losing his memory can recall his past so well with time as depicted in the film. May be they can. I am not a doctor.

There was much potential with the storyline. It flopped a little. No proper build up or no proper dilemma/ problem or anything to make the film a little less monotonal.

Excellent acting, slow burn storytelling, cinematography could have been better.

One for grown ups and not for those with ADHD or young of mind.

Nice to see the Isle of Lewis featured in the film but I think there are better sets that could have been filmed at.