Thoughts of a thin man

The Outrun is a compelling and ultimately uplifting drama around a young woman’s struggle with addiction. It is superbly directed by Nora Fingscheidt in her third feature after System Crasher (2019) and The Unforgivable (2021).

Through its non-linear narrative the film, featuring a mesmerising central performance by Saoirse Ronan—rarely off-screen and often in close up—draws us into the inner mind of the central character as she experiences the lows of alcohol addiction and the restorative power of the natural world.

It is a close retelling of the memoir of the same name by Amy Liptrot, who co-wrote the screenplay with the director, telling the story of her journey from a hedonistic lifestyle in London, fuelled by a destructive alcohol addiction, to a return to her native Orkney in search of recovery.

The central character here is 29 year old PHD graduate Rona (Ronan), whose alcohol fuelled lifestyle triggers the increasing frustration of her caring partner Daynin (Paapa Essiedu). After being attacked one night by a stranger she begins a rehab course before returning to Orkney where she stays with her now separated parents. Prolonging her stay to take a job with the RSPB she relocates to the remote island of Papay and lives alone in a cottage over the winter.

Orkney is a place alive with the natural power of the sea and the myths that spring from it. Vibrations felt throughout the island could be the sea battering underground caves or could equally be the enormous dragon trapped below ground. Seals are the reborn souls of the drowned, who become Selkies at night as they shed their skins to dance in the moonlight. Should they become stranded on land they can never be happy away from their natural habitat.

Rona’s inner life is brought vividly to the screen drifting between a child growing up on the island, a hedonistic clubber in London and an adult returning to her home. Memories surge and fade as she stumbles to the ground on a windswept Orkney beach and rises drunk on a London street. Wandering around standing stones at night lit by torchlight she emerges in the darkness of a club, pulsing lights picking out people dancing around her. It is a beautiful dreamlike experience to watch.

This is no preachy piece on the evils of alcohol or the shallowness of a hedonist lifestyle. Nor is it the tale of an innocent corrupted by the bright lights. Rather it accepts the human desire for thrills and excitement. The extraordinary sound design of Dominik Leube, Yunus Roy Imer’s restless camera and editing of Stephan Bechinger mix and form parallels rather than contrasts, between the club and the wildness of nature, further emphasised by the beats of the techno that Rona listens to on her headphones.

Voiceover and animation present Orkney myths and facts about alcoholism which blend with stunning photography of the rugged coastline becoming one with the clubs of London while in the background, observing from the sea are the ever-present, inquisitive seals.

It is a film that eschews the normal cliches of its subject matter and is capable of moving its audience in unexpected ways. As Rona tracks the International Space Station online we share her emotion as she tearfully watches it move across the sky above her cottage as a point of light. We feel that occasionally the selkie can find themselves again.