Writers: Bouli Lanners and Stéphane Malandrin
Director: Tim Mielants and Bouli Lanners
An unsettling film in many ways, Directors Tim Mielants and Bouli Lanners’s otherwise gentle middle-aged love story is a study in yearning between two people who don’t know who they really are – Philippe because a stroke leaves him with temporary amnesia and Millie because she has never had the chance to find out. Set on an island in the Outer Hebrides, Nobody Has to Know is picturesque and wild bringing the natural world into the film at every opportunity to overshadow the characters while also making them part of a bigger cycle of existence.
When Belgian farmhand Philippe suffers a stroke, he loses his short-term memory and cannot remember his employers or Millie, a local estate agent who is his girlfriend. Rekindling their passionate connection anyway, Philippe quickly returns to life while waiting for his memory to return. But his presence on the island causes some controversy that slowly comes to light and Philippe wonders where he would like to spend his final days.
Nobody Has to Know is a film about secrets and memory, about the line between creating a life for yourself and actually living one. Its centre piece is an ethical dilemma about the degree of connection between Philippe and Millie, and while a large portion of the story focuses on the aftermath of his stroke and revival of a relationship with a woman he doesn’t remember, writers Bouli Lanners and Stéphane Malandrin’s purpose is to explore the depth of feeling that exists beyond his medical condition, a meant-to-be-love story rather than a slightly dubious exploitation of one person by another. And the film is largely successful in turning the audience towards that greater meaning, and it is nice to see an intense physical relationship between an older couple on screen given such prominence.
Frank van den Eeden’s cinematography is also striking, emphasising the rugged landscapes and unyielding cycles of weather that replicate the emotional remoteness of the people. But it is not always a gloomy place as Scottish islands can seem in cinema, but is often filled with sunlight, the broad vistas across the cliffs proving ponderous but also comforting, a place where human life is emboldened in nature and part of a system of life and death. It is a shame Lanners and Malandrin become increasingly distracted by the love story and, as a result, spends too little time explaining the farming work that Philippe undertakes or really grounding the prickly relationship he has with a co-worker and hos boss played by Julian Glover who betrays a touch of xenophobia that is never fully explained.
There are other strands of the film that also hint at a wider context that remains underdeveloped including Millie’s particular connection to the church that Philippe refuses to engage with as well as his own family circumstances resulting in a truncated scenes with a brother that confuses more than it explains. But strong performances from Michelle Fairley as Millie and Lanners as Philippe hold the film together, a portrait of stilted love and a craving for human connections that gives Nobody Has to Know its emotional centre.
Nobody Has to Know is released in UK-wide cinemas on 3 November 2023.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ63te78D_M&ab_channel=ParklandEntertainment
