German director Nora Fingscheidt creates an incredibly moving adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s memoir, The Outrun. Set in the otherworldly Orkney islands of Scotland, The Outrun is a brutally honest drama about addiction and recovery, strength and survival, mental health and the ability of the sea, the land and of people to restore life and renew hope.
When 29-year-old biology student Rona returns to the Orkney Islands after more than a decade away, memories of her childhood merge with the past ten years of her life in London. She takes us back to wilder times when she got lost in the Hackney party scene and fell in love with Daynin. But gradually alcohol took over and Rona lost everything and everyone she cared for. Rona is sober now, but lonely and disconnected to the world around her, staying with her religious mother and helping her bipolar father on the sheep farm where she grew up. Without any expectations, Rona takes on a summer job for the RSPB doing a survey of the elusive corncrake bird that brings her to every inhabited island of Orkney. No eyes for the landscape around her and stuck in a spiral of shame and regret, Rona tries to find stability in her new routine while suppressing the memories of what
happened to her in London. But the past follows her and slowly the mystical land that surrounds her starts to take over her inner world. In a moment of weakness when all seems to fall apart, she decides to place herself in isolation on the small island of Papay for the winter. Alongside the heavy gales, the darkness and the bracingly cold sea, she finds comfort and joy among the small community. One day at a time, Rona starts to come to terms with all the things in her life which set her on this journey towards recovery, and finally finds hope in her future.
The Outrun was written by Amy Liptrot & Nora Fingscheidt and stars Saoirse Ronan, Paapa Essiedu, Stephen Dillane, and Saskia Reeves.
Check out our interview with Nora:
Nora Fingscheidt was born in 1983 in Germany and spent her youth partly in Argentina. Between 2003 and 2008 Nora was a board member of the self-organized film school filmArche in Berlin and completed her training as an acting coach with Sigrid Andersson.
From 2008 to 2017 Nora studied fiction directing at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg. Her graduation film, the full-length documentary Without This World about a conservative Mennonite colony in Argentina, won several Newcomer Awards in Germany, including the Max Ophüls Prize and First Steps Award in 2017.
Her critically acclaimed fiction début System Crasher premiered in 2019 at the Berlin International Film Festival Berlinale where it won a Silver Bear (Alfred Bauer Award). It subsequently won eight German Film Awards and was Germany´s entry for the Oscars in 2020. System Crasher was shown at many international film festivals and has won over 60 awards.
