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Title: Nothing Personal (2009)
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| Cast overview: | |||
| Lotte Verbeek | ... | You | |
| Stephen Rea | ... | Martin | |
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Tom Charlfa | ... | Father Picknick |
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Ann Marie Horan | ... | Mother Pocknick |
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Fintan Halpenny | ... | Elder Son Picknick |
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Sean McRonnel | ... | Younger Son Picknick |
| Paul Ronan | ... | Man in Car | |
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Fiona Kelly | ... | Female Bartender |
| Aindrias De Staic | ... | Fiddle Player | |
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Petey Madigan | ... | Accordeon Player |
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Jackie Coyne | ... | Sean Nos Dancer |
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Wimie Wilhelm | ... | Landlady Holland |
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Irene Sanchez | ... | Hotelclerk Spain |
Alone in her empty flat, from her window Anne observes the people passing by who nervously snatch up the personal belongings and pieces of furniture she has put out on the pavement. Her final gesture of taking a ring off her finger signals she is leaving her previous life in Holland behind. She goes to Ireland, where she chooses to lead a solitary, wandering existence, striding through the austere landscapes of Connemara. During her travels, she discovers a house that is home to a hermit, Martin. Written by Warsaw Film Festival
So I was quite pleased to see this, which, unbeknownst to me, has been a bit of a festival darling, sweeping all before it at Locarno winning six awards including the FIPRESCI, with multiple wins at the Nederlands Film Festival, and top prize at Marrakech.
Director Urszula Antoniak was in attendance and said that this was her first film, it was very personal to her, and it was a perfect expression for her, she said she had all the means and finances she wanted and described it as a "work of love".
Anne (Lotte Verbeek) has decided to start her life again and leave Holland, the milieu of what we can speculate has been a messy divorce, with nothing other than the clothes she is wearing and a backpack. She is in a whirlwind of pain and anger and has decided to reject the world and all people. She is quite rude to the few people she comes across. So she wanders through extremely beautiful and desolate Irish countryside scraping an existence.
Eventually she chances across the most awesomely stunning peninsular hideaway, which took my breath away (location is so important in cinema). She is very rude and forms an uneasy symbiosis with Martin who gives her food in return for manual labour. He agrees to not ask her any questions, and make no demands from her outside of their contract.
They're pretty much the only two characters we see. Anyway the relationship obviously develops but in the most fantastic and eventually heart-floodingly moving way, that renews Anne's faith in humanity and allows her to rejoin the living. I think the ending stuff is pretty iconic, and so well crafted in terms of plotting, so delicate. Very much of a feather with Esther Rots film Can See Through Skin which also won awards at the Nederlands Film Festival.
I felt pretty much humbled afterwards.