The Belgium Director Bouli Lanners' latest film(his 5th) has been on general release across cinemas in Europe during the last week.
The film stars Bouli Lanners (himself) in a leading male role and Michelle Fairley(Game of Thrones) in the lead female role and is set and filmed on the Isle of Lewis in the outer Hebrides.
The film is a tender drama about middle age love between a Belgium(Philippe) who has been living as a farm hand on the Island and Millie(daughter of the sheep farmer for whom Philippe works). After Philippe suffers a stroke and is airlifted to an Inverness hospital he returns to the Island having lost his memory. Millie is charged to look after him and leads to her revealing to him that they were lovers before his malaise and that their affair is unfinished business. As Millie stresses the need to keep the affair secret from her friend and families Phil increasingly questions the nature of their relationship until finally all is revealed when he recovers his memory.
Bouli Lanners has been a regular visit to the Island and uses the story to treat the theme of being a stranger in a community seldom used to integrating outsiders. His relationship with his farmer boss Angus is one of miscomprehension and mistrust.
The film's dialogue is sometimes as bear as the film's setting - Lewis' peatlands or the basic interiors of the houses. Sometimes a sentence, a simple word or even just a silence is sufficient to set the scene to which the Lewis landscape provides the perfect backdrop. The film combines a tender love affair with a commentary on social alienation.
The film accessed £400,000 through Screen Scotland’s Film Development and Production Fund to support this Scottish-French-Belgian co-production
Further Reading & Related Links:
https://www.creativescotland.com/
https://www.screen.scot/