The tourist gaze is a conspicuous presence in Belgian writer-director Bouli Lanners’ latest work, which pours romanticism onto its Outer Hebrides setting with the passion of an outsider. From its immaculately framed beaches to pebble-dashed houses that litter the island, Nobody Has To Know’s lush cinematography feels in keeping with the themes of this slight drama, which revolves around Belgian émigré Philippe (played by Lanners himself) as he recovers from an amnesia-inducing stroke. When his shy and retiring carer Millie (Michelle Fairley) falsely tells Philippe that they were lovers before his illness, the pair begin an intense affair based on a foundation of lies.  

Lanners fails to capitalise on the appealing poetic flourish of protagonists who are both outsiders to themselves and to the land they live on; a shame given his previous success exploring such ideas in films like Eldorado (2008) and The Giants (2011). Superfluous side characters exacerbate the film’s messy feel with inconsequential subplots too fleeting to add substance to the whole yet dominant enough to seem underdeveloped. When the central story does pull into focus, it skirts the surface of Philippe and Millie’s interior lives. Greatness is hinted at here, but it feels a redraft or two away. 

Nobody Has To Know is in cinemas from Friday 3 November.