In Nothing Personal I was interested in the state of self imposed loneliness represented by
two very different characters : a vagabond and a hermit. One constantly moving, another
one staying on an island – they both avoid human contact. When our contemporary world is
busy with issues of unification and integration, these two characters choose a solitude they
see as personal freedom and comfort.
If looking for solitude is human, so is the longing for human contact that terminates the
solitude. The characters presented in Nothing Personal might be extreme in their approach
to solitude but the intimacy that is bound to develop between them follows the same logical
steps as any other intimacy between two people. What are the consecutive stages of coming
together of two people? The rise and fall of (any) intimacy?
Nothing Personal meant for me asking and answering this questions, a process of thinking
that the film ultimately expresses without hiding it behind a story. Having a great respect for
storytelling, I didn’t want to use a story as a trick or manipulate the viewer into identification
with the characters. Instead I wanted Nothing Personal to be a cinematic experience as
much as an intellectual exercise.
