The exclusive Tallinn Black Nights trailer for "Apart" opens on sun-scorched terrain and closes on faces divided by more than landscape. Director Aaron Rottinghaus's 85-minute feature, which premiered in 2011, threads two worlds together - the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and apartheid-era South Africa - to interrogate the labels people attach to one another. The film's own framing puts the ambition plainly: it "challenges the idea of 'us' and 'them.'"
At its center is a rare psychological disorder that binds Noah Greene (Josh Danziger) and Emily Gates (Olesya Rulin) in ways neither fully controls. The official synopsis describes two people forced to unravel the mystery of a tragic past before they can locate any hope for the future. Rottinghaus builds the story across drama, thriller, mystery and romance, a genre blend that suits a narrative about identities refusing to stay in separate boxes.
The supporting ensemble carries the institutions and family structures pressing on the leads. Bruce McGill plays Dr. Thomas Abner, with Joey Lauren Adams as Dr. Jane Sheppard - two figures positioned to explain or pathologize what the young couple experiences. Michael Bowen appears as Teddy Berg. Family roles fall to Sue Rock as Julie Gates, David Born as Joseph Greene and Jason Davis as Oliver Greene, suggesting the past the synopsis invokes is personal as much as historical.
The settings do real thematic work. Cyprus and apartheid South Africa are not interchangeable backdrops but two distinct landscapes of division, and placing a shared psychological condition across them lets the film test whether connection can outlast the categories societies build. The title itself carries the weight: to be "apart" is both to be separated and to be a part of something.
The trailer arrives through Tallinn's exclusive window, giving the film a fresh look more than a decade after its March 9, 2011 release. Audiences weighing it in should note the runtime - a tight 85 minutes - and the ratings picture. TMDb users have scored "Apart" at 4.3 out of 10, a modest figure that signals mixed reception rather than consensus.
For Rottinghaus, the project rests on performance rather than spectacle. Danziger and Rulin anchor the mystery, while McGill and Adams supply the adult authority the younger characters must navigate. The production is an English-language Hollywood title, and the trailer's emphasis on atmosphere over exposition fits a story whose central relationship is defined by something difficult to name.
What the film ultimately asks is whether two people linked by a condition can forge a future when history and geography keep pulling them toward separate corners. The exclusive trailer offers the first extended glimpse at how Rottinghaus answers that question.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
