Watching the trailer for Urszula Antoniak’s debut film, a multiple award winner in Locarno, I couldn’t help but think circa 92’s The Crying Game and making the assessment that Stephen Rea and the harsh, countryside backdrop in Ireland are a natural fit – most likely Antoniak employed the actor for just that. Starring native Dutch, redhead Lotte Verbeek as a wanderer, the trailer and the curiosity of it has killed the cat in me and I’m thinking that it might do the same for film festival curators. Look for The Netherlands’ Nothing Personal to find a couple of open spots in either the remaining U.S. autumn fests of 2009 or the first half of 2010.
Alone in her empty apartment, 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 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. During her travels, she discovers a house that is home to a hermit, Martin. 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.
