Before the holocaust, Adolf Hitler called all of his collaborators together and in order to convince them that he could get away with his plan he asked them who remembers the extermination of the Armenians? That's what he said. Thirty years later nobody remembered the million Armenians exterminated in the cruelest possible way.
Bosnian refugee Hanna Amitron (Sarah Polley), a young hearing impaired woman who is emotionally fragile, is encouraged by her boss to take a holiday after several years of perfect attendance, excellent performance at her English factory job, and because she's never taken a holiday before. She reluctantly goes to the Irish coast but she really doesn't want to be there. She overhears a conversation in a cafe and learns of a badly injured man who survived a fire on an oil platform in the north sea. He needs nursing care until he can be safely evacuated, maybe two weeks. Hanna volunteers for the job and is flow by helicopter to the oil rig.
There she finds Josef (Tim Robbins) who sustained burns on his face and back, damaged corneas resulting in temporary blindness, and several major fractures.
Hanna had been abused in Bosnia and escaped to Copenhagen where her case was documented by Inge (Julie Christie) before she went on to England. She suffers from post traumatic shock and is reclusive with compulsive behavior.
In time, Josef begins to realize some aspects of Hanna's story and after he is transferred to hospital, he contacts Inge and learns the extent and nature of PTS and its affect on Hanna.
Eddie Marsan also appears.
A tender stories with some wonderful music. Among my favorite pieces are Tom Waits' "All the World is Green" and David Byrne's "Tiny Apocolypse."
Written and directed by Isabel Coixet.
Run time: 1 hour, 55 minutes
Not rated by MPAA.
My personal rating: B+
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