Nothing Personal (2009)

Directed by: Urszula Antoniak | 85 minutes | drama | Actors: Stephen Rea, Lotte Verbeek

‘Nothing Personal’ is the English-language debut of the Dutch/Polish screenwriter and director Urszula Antoniak and is about the young Dutch Anne (Lotte Verbeek) who chooses nature over people and who, after the end of a relationship, leaves for Ireland to find peace and quiet. . With this debut film, Urszula Antoniak immediately makes a dream start. The film was the big winner of the Locarno International Film Festival with six prizes (including Best Debut, Best Actress Lotte Verbeek and the International Press Prize FIPRESCI).

In the film, two people choose solitude due to personal circumstances. One is the still young Anne (who is leaving the Netherlands) and the other, Martin, lives like a hermit on an Irish island. The reason for Anne’s choice is not entirely clear, but at the beginning of the film we see how her house is completely emptied and that she slides a ring off her finger. Martin (a strong rendition of Stephen Rea) is a widower and almost completely shuts down from everything and everyone.

Anne takes nothing more than a backpack with some clothes and a tent on her ramble, and in the following scenes ends up on the Irish West Coast, near Galway. She eats out of trash cans and holds off people who want to help her. The weather conditions get worse and worse during her trek, eventually she comes across Martin’s remote house. He feeds her and eventually they make a deal. She does some chores on the land and he feeds her. Both do not want to share anything personal with each other and Anne continues to defy the weather in her tent, she wants to protect herself in her choice for solitude. Martin is almost cut from the same cloth and their silent struggle for the chosen solitude continues; two circumstance-damaged souls who shield their vulnerability by closing themselves off. Though the two continue their silent struggle for solitude, a creeping rapprochement takes place. Lotte eats in the house, moves into an empty room, but they still share nothing but their loneliness.

Especially the interest they have in the choice of the other for his solitude leads to the fact that the high defensive walls are slowly being demolished. Yet under no circumstances do they want to give up their freedom. It is understanding each other’s situation that teaches them to accept each other as they are. They will inevitably come closer together, but is there anything else standing in the way?

It may be interesting for enthusiasts to know that the house in the film was a family home of Oscar Wilde and therefore carries a real cultural charge. The locations are beautifully chosen, the images make optimal use of the magnificent landscape; a lust for the eye. The already strong visual language, in which the dialogues are sparse but largely to the point, is further emphasized by fragments of opera and classical songs that make the film an almost lyrical/magical experience. The combination of the silences between the two protagonists, their strong playing, the subdued filmed story, the fragments of music, the beautiful landscapes: in their combination they are almost overwhelming.

‘Nothing Personal’ is magnificently designed and played and is arthouse pur sang. For cinema-loving audiences: a sparkling brilliant!