The Outrun

Following her Hollywood debut (the Netflix production The Unforgivable), director Nora Fingscheidt may have decided to stick with the English language, but The Outrun’s realm is much closer to that of her highly praised earlier German social drama System Crasher. Her background in documentary becomes evident as her adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s award-winning memoir plays out as a collection of snapshots of a complex and bumpy life.

Rona (Saoirse Ronan) returns to her home, the Orkey Islands, after having interrupted her studies in London and completed an alcohol addiction treatment program. With this deceleration of everyday life, she haltingly regains her footing, even as the renewed contact with her parents adds a different type of strain. Between her mother’s devout faith and her father’s mental illness, Rona finds solace in nature.

The feature is in no rush to explain anything to the viewer, but one gathers the different timelines via changes in Saoirse Ronan’s colourful hair. One scene may have her try to rekindle with her boyfriend (Paapa Essiedu) in London, while the ensuing shows her moving to an even more remote island off Scotland’s shore to monitor corn crake population.

The imagery draws on the rich landscape, which is often accompanied by Rona’s narration alluding to local folklore and mythology, as well as individual childhood deductions, such as her father’s bipolar disorder being staged as attempts to control the weather as if he were a Norse God.

Because of its disjointed sequences, the story doesn’t evoke the boisterous thunder or tempestuous ocean waves the cinematography feeds off of, but splashes along quietly and without any particular climax or target line. Whoever turns to this film in hopes of finding answers in regards to addictive behaviour will be met with disappointment, but the plus side of this is that the drama avoids falling into the pitfall of didactics.

Completely at ease and harmonising with Rona’s emotional and soul-searching journey, Ronan’s head-first dive into this character is the carthorse of the production. Her performance is spellbinding and invigorating.

In true Berlinale Panorama fashion, The Outrun is a patchwork tale of resilience and a reminder to walk at one’s own pace, likely to find its fanbase in the arthouse crowd.

Selina Sondermann

The Outrun does not have a UK release date yet.

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