“The Outrun” is Nora Fingscheidt’s second international production following the Berlinale hit “System Crasher”. With US-born Saoirse Ronan in the leading role, the German film-maker delivers a gripping drama about a recovering alcoholic.
By Philipp Bühler
A London pub, long after closing time. Knocking back a half-finished glass, Rona yells and puts up a fight when a bouncer tries to escort her out of the pub. Abrupt swish pans convey the allure of drunken fun, sudden cuts her loss of control after a night of heavy drinking. “I cannot be happy sober,” she’ll say later. This time, she gets off lightly.
Adaption of a novel with captivating visual language
Like Rona at certain moments in the film, you almost think you’re seeing double, as if Nora Fingscheidt’s
The Outrun is simply a reshot of her Berlinale hit from 2019. In fact, it’s hard not to see alcohol-addict Rona, played so superbly by Saoirse Ronan, as a biographical continuation of 9-year-old Bernadette in
System Crasher (Systemsprenger). But the captivating – even intoxicating – visual language only works because two women complement each other so perfectly here. Irish-American Hollywood star Ronan herself reportedly asked Fingscheidt to adapt this book. Now we know why. After the disappointment of her social drama
The Unforgivable (USA/Germany 2021), the German film-maker – a participant in the Berlinale Talents programme many years ago – demonstrates her full directorial prowess in this second international production.
Getting sober on the Orkney islands
Rona’s sad career as an alcoholic certainly has kitsch potential. After a stint in London and fresh out of rehab, the unemployed biologist returns to Scotland’s Orkney Islands, to her parents’ homeland, to try and rebuild her life. Instead of wild parties, there are Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. And, of course, the island’s wonderfully wild landscape, clearly a reflection of a storm-battered soul. But Fingscheidt and Amy Liptrot, author of the novel and co-author of the screenplay, keep up a compelling narrative. Analogous to Rona’s persistent relapses, dynamic flashbacks echo the fluctuating stages of addiction, with the lure of the bottle ever-present. In one magnificently orchestrated scene, Rona conducts the swelling waves – just as she once controlled raucous pub crowds, at least in her imagination. But overcoming her addiction is certainly no holiday, and Fingscheidt’s island idyll is convincingly harsh and austere.
The Outrun had its international debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January, so unfortunately no longer qualified for the Berlinale Competition.
