Cast
Lotte Verbeek, Stephen Rea
Cinematography
Daniel Bouquet
Music
Ethan Rose
Costumes
Bho Roosterman- Vroegen
Set Design
Jane English
Screenwriting
Urszula Antoniak
Sound mix
Victor Horstink
Editing
Nathalie Alonso Casale
Production
Rinkel Film & TV
Kievitstraat 5
1011 TV Amsterdam
Netherlands
Rinkelfilm BV
Rapenburg 33
1011TV Amsterdam
Netherlands
Coproduction
Family Affair Films
Sumatrakade 611
1019 PS Amsterdam
Netherlands
Fastnet Films
75 Camden st. Lower
First floor
Dublin 2
Ireland
Family Affair Films
Sumatrakade 611
1019 PS Amsterdam
Netherlands
Fastnet Films
75 Camden st. Lower
First floor
Dublin 2
Ireland
Synopsis:
The film
Alone in her empty apartment, from her window Anne (Lotte Verbeek) 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 to go to Ireland, where she chooses to lead a solitary, wandering existence, striding with her rucksack on her back through the austere landscapes of Connemara. She sets up her tent in the midst of vast empty spaces or facing the sea, savouring her solitude, a solitude however that is sometimes hard to cope with in the cold and the rain. Her encounters with tourists and lorry-drivers who give her lifts, far from giving her pleasure or the warmth of human contact, instead push her to move still further away from human habitation. During her travels, she discovers a house that is home to a hermit, Martin (Stephan Rea). The latter proposes that she works for him, looking after the house and garden in exchange for food. Anne accepts on the condition that they keep their personal lives out of conversation and restrict their relationship to the work to be done. However, these two solitary beings gradually develop a degree of curiosity about one another. Yet they cannot satisfy it without breaking their pact and compromising their self-imposed isolation, a guarantee of autonomy. Utilising the magnificent colours of the Irish landscapes, changing grey skies, and intensely green grass, the film, with its very sparse dialogue, enables us to hear the sounds of nature, the wind, the sea, the rivers. Nothing Personal explores with great sensitivity this choice of solitude and the problems of both maintaining and renouncing to it that bring together two extreme and uncompromising characters who become attached to one another almost against their will.
