292. US film director Jim Jarmusch's 15th feature film "Father Mother Sister Brother" (2025), based on yet another of his original witty, thoughtful screenplays, this time focusing on contemporary grown-up family relationships

 

Can you toast with tea, though?

 --the film's character Jeff (Adam Driver) playing the role of a son, following a toast by his father raising three glasses of water, some with ice cubes (geographical location: New Jersey, USA)

Can you toast with coffee?

--the film's character Billy (Luka Sabbat) another son of another father in the film asks his sister (geographical location: Paris, France)

In the third and final segment, the act of drinking water is described wistfully by the siblings as native Indian medicine, a symbolic cure to transcend their personal grief and move forward 

There are three top-notch living US film directors who fall in the category of independent filmmakers: Terrence Malick, Jim Jarmusch and John Sayles. They do not compromise with demands of the big studios and influential film producers on creativity, originality and ownership of their final products. None of these three gentlemen won an Oscar. In contrast, the first two have won major awards at the big three film festivals of Europe: Terrence Malick won the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) for The Tree of Life at Cannes, the Golden Bear for Best Film for The Thin Red Line at Berlin, while Jim Jarmusch won the 2025 Golden Lion for the Best Film for Father Mother Sister Brother at Venice, the 2005 Grand Prize of the Jury at the Cannes festival (second best film in competition) for Broken Flowers and an award for best artistic contribution for Mystery Train at the 1989 Cannes festival; while the best work of John Sayles (in my view), Limbo, was nominated in 1999 for the Golden Palm at Cannes. 

However there are differences between the three independent US filmmakers. Malick deals with contemplative philosophy and theology--so much so that audiences were confused when The Thin Red Line replaced conventional action of war films with philosophical questions presented as voice-overs playing within the minds of soldiers depicted in the film. Further, Malick continued to replace conventional screenplays with sheafs of notes for actors as a guide for them to emote. Malick had graduated from Harvard University, almost completed his doctorate on Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Wittgenstein at Oxford University in UK before he disagreed with his doctoral advisor, and subsequently taught philosophy at MIT. 

Jarmusch is slightly different. He focusses instead on slow and funny conversations he writes for his fictional characters that is best appreciated when audiences pay attention to details, which when stitched together can provide awesome entertainment rarely encountered in cinema. Jarmusch was a student of English language at Columbia University. His skills are considerably apparent in Father Mother Sister Brother while introducing the idiom "Bob's your uncle" which basically translates as "simple as that." A genuine reaction in the film by another character who is not familiar with the idiom is a surprised query about who is this Bob to which the response is only silence. In another segment of the film, "Bob's your uncle" is changed to "Your uncle's name is Robert" because the speaker is a more accomplished mother (Charlotte Rampling) compared to the unrelated previous parent in the earlier segment and a successful writer and thus one will note the subtle change used in the idiom, is appropriate for her social standing. Jarmusch's care for details is almost invisible but exists, nevertheless, for us to notice, if we care to concentrate. Similarly, all segments of the film have characters using the term/gag "Nowheresville," to emphasize detachment, secretiveness, aimless drifting, and/or emotional distance between family members.

Grown-up son Jeff (Adam Driver) and grown-up daughter 
Emily (Mayim Bialik) listen to their father, who they respect
but do not know sufficiently.

The reclusive father (Tom Waits), who works on "projects,"
hurriedly transforms a tidy house with a good sofa 
by covering it with a sheet as though it was hiding a bad one and  strews books
of Chomsky and others of that caliber to give an impression of a lonely,
scatterbrained senior, who can only offer water to his visiting offspring

In each of the three almost unconnected segments, the three different sets of grown-up progenies encounter young skateboarders on the road and the reactions of each progeny is in subtle ways different. Rolex watches of three different wearers in each segment are discussed, two claim they are fake (a debatable fact), and one wearer is no longer alive. 

Father Mother Sister Brother is an intelligent, carefully crafted study of contemporary distancing between parents and their grown-up progenies as social and economic issues make sons and daughters live away from their parents leading to infrequent interactions, limited often by costs and distance. All progenies care for their parents, few help them financially, others don't especially when their spouses object. They grow up often unaware of what their parents do or achieved in their lives. As Jarmusch's film suggests, the secretive lives pervade both generations equally, both suspecting the other but careful to be not too invasive of the other. In one segment it is the father, in another it is a daughter, and in yet another it is both parents who have secret lives that enable them to own Rolex watches, facts that are hidden from others in the family. In a broader sense, the film is a witty, original cinematic essay on the need for more communication within families which is increasingly difficult in the developed world. Jarmusch has proved himself to be adept at the anthology film format with his equally well-made films: Night on Earth; Coffee and Cigarettes; and Mystery Train. In Coffee and Cigarettes, just as in Father Mother Sister Brother, the beverages coffee and tea play a silent part, where all episodes have personalities drinking coffee, save one where tea is the beverage of choice. (Refer: the opening quotes of this review. In the opening episode, tea is brewed by the daughter after the father only serves water and she finds does find tea leaves in the house.) Interesting departure for an American film, where alcoholic drinks remain obscured.

Two daughters, Timothea (center; Cate Blanchett) and
Lilith (right; Vicky Krieps)
visit their successful mother (left; Charlotte Rampling)

It is quite possible that Jarmusch named one of the grown-up daughters "Lilith" with the full knowledge of the name chosen for a character in the film. In the Bible, there is only one mention of Lilith (Isaiah 34:14), implying a demonic character. However, in the medieval text The Alphabet of Ben Sira (written between 8th to 10th century CE),  Lilith was created from the same dust as Adam, had demanded equality with Adam in the Garden of Eden, specifically refusing to lie beneath Adam, and left Eden refusing to return even when God sent angels to bring her back and was eventually considered a demon, as mentioned in Isaiah. For Jarmusch, his Lilith in the second segment Mother has parallels with this aforementioned tale. The mother (Rampling) is worried about her daughter Lilith (Vicky Krieps). Lilith tells her mother candidly, "I don't know, you know, if I want to be tied to a man." It fits in with the images of Lilith's actions before that statement. She is driven to her mother's home by a close female friend, and Lilith asks her to pretend being a Uber driver with Lilith as a passenger, and moves to the rear seat from the front before reaching the destination. It is Lilith making the decisions, her female friend quietly obeys. Lilith gets her mother to order and pay for the return Uber journey, which her mother can see through, silently. More of Lilith's character is exposed when she gallantly offers to take the coat of her sister Timothea (Cate Blanchett) on her arrival at the mother's house, which Timothea accedes to. But instead of carefully hanging Timothea's coat, she casually throws it on an armchair. Then there is a conversation about Lilith's Rolex watch, which she claims is not real. This Jarmusch film is full of details waiting for the audience to note and savor.

Grieving brother Billy (Luka Sabbat) and sister (Indya Moore),
 who loved their parents who recently died in an air crash,
are surprised to find several fake IDs of their parents, including a
Rolex watch, opening up new perspectives of their parents 

Initially, Father Mother Sister Brother was offered to the 2025 Cannes film festival for its main Competition section. Strangely, the selection committee favored other films and instead offered to screen the film out of competition. The angry Jarmusch withdrew his film from Cannes and offered it to the Venice film festival that was opening a few months later. Father Mother Sister Brother not only got included in the main Competition Section at Venice but won the top prize there -- the Golden Lion. It only shows the Cannes' selection committee was looking at a gift horse in the mouth! Congratulations, Mr Jarmusch! 

It is another matter that the US Oscars never nominated Jarmusch as a director, writer or producer. Another case of a prophet never being recognized in his own land!

P.S.  Jarmusch's film Paterson (2016) has been reviewed earlier on this blog. Malick's The Thin Red Line; The Tree of Life; To the Wonder; Days of Heaven; and  Knight of Cups have also been reviewed earlier on this blog. (Click on the names of each film mentioned in the postscript to access the reviews.)  The author's ranking of all Jarmusch films that he has viewed can be accessed here The author's ranking of the best films released in 2025 can be accessed here.

 

232. Danish/Irish director David Noel Bourke’s third feature film “Bakerman” (2016) (Denmark) based on his original story: An interesting tale of a quiet and introspective Dane facing career threats from his employer who is an immigrant, and unprovoked and unconnected vandalism from other immigrants, sparking off an unusual chain reaction

Bakerman is an award-winning Danish film that has surprisingly not been picked up for screening by international festivals beyond western Europe and the American east coast. Few critics seem to have either seen the film or discussed it. Yet it is better than some of the films that do get screened at film festivals around the globe and get discussed.  It won the Best Foreign Film award at the Maryland International Film Festival and Best Actor award at New York’s Nordic International Film Festival, both in USA.

Director David Noel Bourke’s original script of Bakerman is quite engaging because it captures several feelings any economically fragile Dane would face in recent times.  Bourke presents a variant of the very subjects that the Belgian director brothers Dardenne or even the French director Stéphane Brizé usually work on. Bourke’s script injects a sinister psychological perspective to what the Dardenne brothers or Brizé would perhaps have preferred to skip while moulding their own scripts for their films.

Bakerman’s title character is Jens (Mikkel Vadsholt), an introverted middle-aged baker by profession. It might not be the best of careers in Denmark but Jens loves his work and is concerned about retaining the quality of his baked products. It is doubly interesting when the viewer realizes that he is just an employee and not the owner of the bakery.  Not many workers consider quality of the product they help produce to be important when they are not directly sharing the profits of the establishment or enjoying wide recognition for their inputs. Yet Jens is a quiet man worried about the drop in quality of the bakery’s products and chooses to voice it. The viewer begins to like Jens at this stage.

The introspective baker Jens (Mikkel Vadsholt) at home

In the film, when Jens asks his employer, an immigrant to Denmark who has acquired the bakery, for a salary raise because others in the bakery have been given one, he is rudely turned down with the argument that there are others who could replace him. One feels sorry for the good hard working Jens.

The viewer is slowly drawn closer to Jens, living alone in a house in the suburbs, waking up early before crack of dawn to have fresh baked bread and other baked products for customers in the morning. Compared to his colleague in the bakery, Jens is reticent but an observant gentle giant who referees football games.  However, women friends who drink with him in the pubs do not find him sexually attractive, while his male bakery colleague is successful on that front. The viewer begins to reassess Jens.

Jens alone by the sea, reflecting and planning

A wanton act of theft and another of vandalism by immigrants from a Muslim nation involving Jens’ car parked near Jens’ workplace sparks off a Batman-like transformation in the quiet baker. He travels in his modest “Batmobile” clearing lone immigrant drug peddlers off the streets, without a mask or a cape. On one such lone night vigilante trips, he rescues a Muslim immigrant girl being brutally beaten up on an empty street by her “brother.”  When Jens offers to drop the lady (Mozan) home, she explains in broken English that she has no place to stay. Our Batman takes her to his home and behaves like a gentleman towards her as Batman would.  The director Bourke intentionally makes the viewer more inquisitive about Jens with his contrasting actions: one a ruthless killer and the other a genuine good guy and a gentleman.

Mozan (Siir Tilif)  at the party hosted by Jens' sister

Bourke’s film grows in complexity as Jens is evidently not what he appears to be at the start of the film. The job insecurity and vandalism triggers off a set of a proactive deeds by him to set right "Jens’ world." Some of those actions reveal that quiet, boring people can be meticulous planners who can literally get away with murder.

Jens has a past not unlike that of Batman.  This is revealed by newspaper clippings secretly stored away in closed boxes, which explains his moody behaviour. Jens’ attitude towards religion suggests he is an atheist as he avoids attending his nephew’s confirmation, an important milestone for religious Christians.  These subtexts are important in the context of the film’s ending that clarifies that Jens’ vigilante-like behaviour against immigrants is not based on their religion but on their unprovoked, unacceptable actions.

Jens wearing  a superhero costume for a party
appears a frail human being searching for Mozan

Bourke’s film Bakerman is interesting on several fronts.  The main character Jens is revealed gradually, where the viewer is led to assess him and then reassess him continuously as the film progresses. It is a roller-coaster ride for the patient viewer right up to the end of the film to figure out the Danish Batman/Bakerman.  An example of Bourke’s remarkable ability is being able to compress a murder sequence to one without any scene of the actual murder itself by creative editing of shots.  More interestingly, Bakerman is a film that challenges the viewer’s judgements and luckily the dark, brooding, evil mid-section of the film gradually blends with the positive ending that Bourke provides us. 

Birds in flight, an appropriate metaphor
for the happy Jens at the end

Bakerman is not a perfect film (e.g., how could a woman who cannot speak Danish figure out the headline of a Danish newspaper clipping?) Yet, its strengths are the performance of Mikkel Vadsholt who brings out the complex yet vulnerable character of Jens and the ability of Bourke to reconstruct the script into a shorter film at several stages due to budgetary constraints that an independent filmmaker faces. Both Mikkel Vadsholt and director Bourke are talented individuals and one hopes that they contribute even further to good filmmaking in the future and be more widely accepted. 

P.S. Three films of the Dardenne brothers (Rosetta, The kid with the bike, and Two days, one night) and director Stéphane Brizé’s Measure of a man were reviewed earlier on this blog. (Please click on the coloured titles of the films within this post-script to access the reviews.)

143. Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino’s film made in USA “This Must Be the Place” (2011): Place and time continuum reinforced for the reflective viewer

Paolo Sorrentino is definitely a talented director.  His films considerably rely on visual statements.  Sorrentino’s This Must Be the Place indirectly urges the film’s viewer to observe the details of visual statements, which often put in context the quaint sense of humor of the spoken word in the film.  That does not mean the viewer should miss the quirky spoken words either, such as the deadpan non sequitur "Why is Lady Gaga?"  The most important lines, stated nonchalantly, come mid-way into the film and those lines are the key to understanding it:

“You have to choose a moment in your life to be not afraid.”

“And have you chosen that moment?”

“Yes, I have.”

Those critical lines explain the entire film for those who might find the film exasperating to understand, beyond the obvious strands of the film being a cocktail of a road movie, a detective movie and a Nazi-criminal-hunt movie.  It also a vengeance movie but one that presents the antithesis of violence one associates with Hollywood vengeance movies, a la Quentin Tarantino. The film is perhaps best described as a psychological study about individuals who wear masks and are able to remove their masks when they are no longer afraid and ultimately realize they don’t need masks to survive. The film also gives importance to the time and place when a life-changing moment in one’s life allows for an important u-turn in your life, a point in life when you mentally grow up.

Cheyenne (Penn) and wife (McDormand)

This Must Be the Place is an unusual film and for many viewers half an hour into the film will probably make them cringe away from looking at the screen and instead glance in the wrong direction—the exit door. One is likely to have similar urges with Sorrentino’s spectacular and more complex work The Consequences of Love (2004) as well. However, if you have some forbearance, both films will prove to be audacious, intelligent and rewarding provided you stay glued to the screen right up to the end of the film. And if you do stay right up to the end, you are likely to be delighted to have viewed cinema of a distinct and unusual quality and re-evaluate the early bits of any Sorrentino film in a totally new light once the movie gets over.  That is the amazing talent of Sorrentino.  And Sorrentino is only 42!

Sorrentino is an Italian who has made his name with works totally Italian. And yet his latest film which is only his fourth feature film,  This Must Be the Place is remarkably different: it is in English language, with Hollywood actors, and capturing Americana as an American director would to the bone. But the movie retains its European directorial style, just as German Werner Herzog made Stroszek (1977) or German Wim Wenders who made Paris, Texas (1984) and decades later followed up with The Million Dollar Hotel (2000) in USA utilizing several Hollywood stars, some of whom were already major actors elsewhere before they became to be known as Hollywood stars.

Fear of flying

This Must Be the Place has major Hollywood stars—Sean Penn and Frances McDormand.  And Sean Penn does an amazing turn as a burned out Goth Rock star, a character that is bizarre but will remain indelible in the minds of most viewers.  Sean Penn wears lipstick, eyeliners, and a weird hairdo and talks slowly in a manner one associates with drug addicts. You begin to wonder initially if Penn is playing a transvestite and then you realize he is not. He is just a rock star caught in a time warp and living retired life in Dublin, Ireland, as though he is still mentally on stage before a live audience of screaming fans. We soon realize he is not dangerous but an innocent and well-meaning husband with strange tastes for his appearance. But Penn and Sorrentino create another dimension:  Penn speaks slowly but in unusually high pitch in this role and what he speaks is never tripe but often measured words of wisdom.  When being served a cheeseburger, the waitress converses with Cheyenne (Sean Penn) and apologizes that the burger is a bit too well done. “You don’t mind, do you? Unfortunately that’s life” she adds. Cheyenne’s deadpan response is “You know what the problem is...we go on from an age where we say ‘My life will be that’ to an age where we say ‘That’s life’.” Or take another case when Cheyenne is offered a cigarette he responds “Why with all the vices I indulged in I never took up smoking?” Now that is Sorrentino and co-scriptwriter Umberto Contarello at work.  All these lines tell you that the film is definitely more than a road movie, a detective movie and a Nazi-criminal-hunt movie.

Making contact, when in trouble, with his wife

The opening shots of Sean Penn applying lipstick and eyeliner and sporting the weird hairdo of Goth Rock musicians give the viewer a clue. This is a mask of a troubled mind.  But then the clues of what is bothering Cheyenne only slowly tumble out. Despite the lovely house in Dublin (evidence of sufficient financial security) and a 35 year old stable marriage with a loving wife (Frances McDormand) who is a fire-fighter and loves “saving lives”, it is easy for the viewer to note that Cheyenne is carrying heavy emotional baggage.  We first learn that two teenage kids committed suicide due to the lyrics of Cheyenne’s songs and this has affected him. Then we learn of his fractured relationship with his father in USA, who is a Holocaust survivor on his deathbed. We also note that an old woman and Cheyenne’s not-so-cheerful neighbour in Dublin hates the sight of the old pop star every time he passes by her window because she associates Cheyenne with her son who has left her for a long while. And we realize that Cheyenne understands her pain: he himself is suffering the pangs of a broken father-son relationship.

This Must Be the Place is a film that suggests violence but does not show it—in fact the film is an ode to non-violence.  Sorrentino’s original script has some lovely comments about the easy purchase of guns in USA. In a gun shop, in the film, a customer comments: “If we are licensed to be monsters, we end up with only one desire--to truly be monsters.” These are the gems of a Sorrentino film that makes you think.

Sean Penn and Sorrentino build up Cheyenne’s character with great care—it is part feminine, part childlike. The character is only deceptively childlike. When someone remarks “Didn’t you use to drink a lot?” Cheyenne answers, “Enough to decide to stop.” The adult in Cheyenne is revealed by the uncanny detective skills he employs to reach his target—a Nazi criminal. He meets the Nazi criminal's wife as though he is an old student of hers.  He meets his Nazi criminal’s daughter and grandchild and even sings a song at their request. To locate his Nazi, Cheyenne chats up the inventor of adding wheels to bags (played by Harry Dean Stanton, a mild reference to Wenders’ movie Paris, Texas). 

With a native Indian

As a road movie, there is even a silent but evocative drive with a silent native Indian and a ping pong game where Cheyenne teaches youngsters the finer points.

Without revealing the crucial outcome of the Nazi-criminal and Cheyenne meeting, the more important aspect is how it transforms Cheyenne.  He has a haircut. He is able to walk in Dublin with an energy that eluded him before his trip to see his estranged father in USA. He can look straight in the eye of his neighbor looking at him out of her window.  Cheyenne has not just physically changed, he has changed psychologically. He has dropped off the emotional baggage. And the best part of the Sorrentino tale, the old woman gets transformed by the sight of the new Cheyenne. She is able to see that one day her own son could also return to her, transformed as Cheyenne has.

The visual tale

What is remarkable about This Must Be the Place to make it one of the finest films of 2012? Apart from the obvious remarkable performance of Sean Penn and Sorrentino’s story/screenplay/direction, it is the film’s ability to raise the quality of cinema by its images. All the four Sorrentino films released so far have Luca Bigazzi, the cinematographer, making his definite imprint on the viewer.  Bigazzi’s outdoor crane shots and the long shots come alive on the big screen.  Both in The Consequences of Love and This Must Be the Place (the only two Sorrentino  films that this critic has seen)  the alienation of the main characters are accentuated by their physical loneliness captured on camera with no individual in proximity. Even when filming scenes indoors, Bigazzi/ Sorrentino capture the loneliness with large spaces and distances. My favourite scene is of Penn/Cheyenne sitting alone in a darkened room watching slides and as the slides change the camera captures his face and the discrete changes in emotions, punctuated by the total darkness that merges with his black hair. A remarkable and clever sequence involving camerawork, screenplay and editing is how the scene of David Byrne singing the title song is introduced into the film that begins with woman sitting in an armchair in a closed room with the visuals taking you to David Byrne performing and Cheyenne commenting on the song to Byrne. However, in scenes where Penn and McDormand are together there is not much of distance separating them as they are evidently portraying a happy couple.  (In an interview, Sorrentino revealed that the close relationship and understanding in the film between Cheyenne and his wife is built on Sorrentino’s own relationship with his wife.)  Even in the shot of Cheyenne returning from the US approaching the window of his neighbor who had earlier despised him the physical distances between them appear to be reducing. Every shot in the Sorrentino films reminds one of the visual distances you encounter in films of Antonioni.  

Cheyenne is hyperactive playing handball with his wife in an empty swimming pool

This Must Be the Place might not be as great a film as The Consequences of Love but it definitely proves that Sorrentino, Penn and Bigazzi are each remarkable in their own individual but versatile contributions they have made to this lovely film. The film deservedly won the Ecumenical Jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival 2012.

P.S. This Must Be the Place is one of the top 10 films of 2012 for the author. Sorrentino’s The Consequences of Love has been reviewed earlier on this blog. Mr Sorrentino is also one the author's 15 favourite active filmmakers

92. Polish director and scriptwriter Urszula Antoniak's debut film "Nothing Personal" (2009): Amazing tale on solitude beautifully told

Solitude is often craved for by individuals who are thinkers (and sometimes by misanthropes, due to their personal past experiences). It is a state that monks and people spiritually inclined love to enjoy at some stage in their lives. It is an accepted life stage in Hindu religious practice and certain Buddhist and Jain traditions. Gertrude Stein wrote on solitude "When they are alone they want to be with others, and when they are with others they want to be alone. After all human beings are like that." Nothing Personal is a very interesting film that reflects Ms Stein's thoughts. It begins with a woman who for unknown reasons gives away all her worldly possessions and leaves on a journey to nowhere. In a secluded spot in Ireland, another man--a widower--lives alone valuing his solitary life. Yet, he realizes that he could do with some hired help to tend his garden. The two individuals meet but do their lives change? The Irish-Dutch film directed by a Polish director explores the theme with remarkable results.

Polish director and scriptwriter Urszula Antoniak, currently living in Holland, is someone to watch out for in the future landscape of world cinema if Nothing Personal is an indicator of her capabilities. I have a soft corner for any talented debut filmmaker who relies on his/her own story and script. Ms Antoniak is one such director revealing her potential of greater works to come.

Actress Lotte Verbeek essays the fascinating character

Nothing Personal, a very recent Irish-Dutch co-production, making its Indian premiere at the 14th International Film Festival of Kerala, had its audience clapping away at some delightfully composed shots by cinematographer Daniel Bouquet and director Antoniak, conjured for the viewer. It is without doubt a nugget of a film. Ms Antoniak deservedly won the best first feature of a director award at Locarno Film Festival. The film has won an incredible tally of 10 awards already, 6 of which came at the Locarno film Festival itself in Italy.

Lotte Verbeek, a Dutch actress with a magnetic screen presence, plays a young attractive Dutch woman who discards all her material possessions in Holland one fine day and watches strangers pick up the material from the window of her apartment. She is shown wearing a wedding ring, which she is shown removing. Evidently, she was once married but there is no mention of her past or of her marriage as the film unspools. Ms Verbeek won the Silver Leopard best actress award at Locarno Film Festival portraying the main role of a young woman with no money, backpacking from Holland to an unknown beautiful desolate spot in Ireland with no apparent purpose with all the qualities of a misanthrope. During the film, Ms Verbeeck’s demeanor gradually changes from the unfriendly to the affable and then back to her old self. The changes in her character that are subtle are truly a treat to watch. Like Ms Antoniak, we can be sure that Ms Verbeek, too, will be talked about in the future.

Director and scriptwriter Antoniak presents an enigmatic character with minimal spoken conversations. But when words are spoken the carefully chosen words provide a lot of meaning. The woman is distrustful of men, who possibly mean her no harm, and rude to women who want to get know her or even help her. The woman feeds herself by checking out trash bins for left-over food. On reaching a scenic spot in Ireland by apparent chance, she spots a lonely house of rich owner. When the owner, a well-to-do genial old widower, returns to the house, he offers her food. She is initially rude to him as well. The two come to an arrangement where she would work for food, but refuses to reveal her name or speak a word of who she is. Throughout the film she is addressed as “You’ by the house-owner Martin after she says he can call her ‘You ‘ The deal is food for work, but no discussion on personal matters. Hence, the title of the film--Nothing Personal.

The film is essentially about the relationship that is built over the days between the two. Both are individuals who, for their own reasons, like to be alone. Both, it is gradually revealed, are well-educated and cultured Europeans. The back-packer with no money is capable of making haute cuisine when she chooses and is well versed with good music and books. What follows is a gripping tale of appreciation of solitude, not because one hates people and their friendships, but because they value their own space and time without intrusions from others. Yet, even such people can value companionship when they find people of a similar vein.

This film will provide a great boost for Irish cinema. The film showcases yet another commendable performance from Irish actor of repute Stephen Rea, who had a major role in the award-winning film The Crying Game. It will also serve as a great advertisement for Irish tourism with its fascinating locales liile known to potential tourists.

Without revealing the end of the film, I would advise all viewers of this film to pay attention to the sound and visual details throughout the film. A perceptive viewer will truly enjoy the remarkable epilogue of the film, which tells an aspect of the story that the film does not reveal right up to that point of the tale.