A deeply endearing film, Nobody Has to Know concerns Phil, a middle-aged Belgian farmhand working on the Scottish Isle of Lewis, who suffers amnesia following a stroke.
A lonely local woman, Millie, helps him acclimate back to his life and claims they were lovers previously, a fragile lie that Millie must protect. With the gradual return of Phil’s memories, their new-found happiness is threatened.
Though reluctant to continue their relationship, they cannot deny their attraction and the stage is set for reignited romance. There’s just one issue: did that romance ever exist in the first place?
Starring Bouli Lanners and Michelle Fairley, there is real empathy and grace in this tale of two genuinely lost people finding connection.
If this isn’t a film to set the heart racing, it doesn’t leave that organ entirely untroubled; with his script’s echoes of 40s weepie Random Harvest, Lanners is aiming for similar status.
Ryan Gilbey, The Guardian
