Nobody has to know

Director: Bouli Lanners
Starring: Michelle Fairley, Bouli Lanners, Andrew Still, Julian Glover, Cal McAninch, Clovis Cornillac, Paul Amed
Distributor: Umbrella Films
Runtime: 99 mins. Reviewed in Apr 2022
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc

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Rating notes: Coarse language

Phil is a middle-aged Belgian farmer, living on an outer Hebrides island. Something of a loner, he suffers a stroke, experiences amnesia. Millie moves to take care of him, his brother comes from Belgium to urge him back home – and he recovers his memory which has some disturbing results.

NOBODY HAS TO KNOW, Belgium/UK, 2021. Starring Michelle Fairley, Bouli Lanners, Andrew Still, Julian Glover, Cal McAninch, Clovis Cornillac, Paul Amed. Directed by Bouli Lanners, 99 minutes. Rated M (Coarse language).

Here is a film about middle-aged characters, for a middle-aged to older audience. It is something of a quiet human drama.

And, it has an unusual production background, a co-production between Belgium and Scotland. The central character, Phil, is Belgian but has left his homeland and migrated to the island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. He is employed by a local farmer to do the hard manual work in the fields such as mending fences, digging trenches. And then he suffers a stroke.

The film was written and directed by its star, the Belgian veteran actor, Bouli Lanners. He has written a sensitive screenplay and portrays Phil as quiet and introverted, running away from his former life, having to deal with the strokes and, particularly, for the most part of the film, amnesia.

The island setting is rather bleak, generally overcast – though some sunshine towards the end of the film. The locations are ordinary homes, the fields, church – the churchgoing scenes are made with the collaboration of the Free Church of Scotland, quite explicit in the sermons about the role of Jesus and his suffering. Interesting to see churchgoing accepted by the community and the community participating, listening attentively to the preacher, vigorously singing the hymns.

When Phil has his stroke (not his first), Millie, daughter of the local landowner Angus (Glover, who is in his mid-80s), offers to look after Phil. Phil doesn’t remember Millie who devotes herself to him, continuing, she says, her love for him before the stroke.

The transformative effects this has devotion has on Millie and Phil is the emotional centre of this story. However, there are complications, as the family disapproves of Phil, especially Milly’s young nephew. Brian, the nephew, is a decent enough young man, churchgoing like his family, who worked in the fields with Phil. Brian’s biggest tangle is his love for a dog and caring for it while its owners are away, and then becoming too attached to it.

There are happy and sad moments, especially with Millie having to come to terms with Phil and the recovery of his memory. There is a beautiful scene when they are at a funeral, at a distance and then coming to sit together, accompanied by frank talk and declarations.

This is certainly not an adrenaline-pumping drama. Rather, it is something of a quiet slice of life, of relationships, emotional and tangled, anchored in the Scottish island atmosphere.

Umbrella Films