Several years ago I heard a (ministerial-type) person say to another person that "this is the time he needs to be around us, his friends," referring to a guy who was staying apart after a personal difficulty--a tragedy. ... A the time my immediate thought was that We Do Not Know the Heart of Another and certainly cannot presume or project onto him what it is he "needs." ... This film is a profound truth-based and haunting unfoldment of the empirical reality that humans sometimes truly need to "hide away," so to speak, in order to mend and heal in spirit, soul, emotions, mind, and body. ... It is also a clear and powerful representation of overt and subtle aspects and examples of how fellow-beings can serve persons who are mending--and perhaps taking months and months to do so: not 'interfering' or following the person around (or getting 'in his face') asking constant poking questions. The the cafe' owner and the ancient mariner stand back, stand by, and provide time and space, while sort of watching over him--including in anonymous ways such as invisibly providing needed things, like those quarters to continue running the shower-water. This is a set of forms of a Ministry of Presence, which is not about 'saying' or 'doing' lots of things...it's about being profoundly yet quietly Present and totally taking cues from the person. .....
..... We learn very early in the beginning of the movie why he is drawn to that particular boat, which itself has great meaning and import. .... What others have written about the filmography and setting of the film holds true as well--it is strikingly beautiful, as are the musical scores (cues) throughout the film. ... All of the songs are Perfect, apt, and ideally placed in the film.
....What I don't know is if the subtitles (which just happened to be set to "on" when it ran on Prime Video) are the ones that would be on a DVD version; the 'subtitles' are strange a lot of the time, e.g., saying "noise" instead of "footsteps" or "engine running," and are outright incorrect in other instances. ... so it seems as if whoever did the closed captioning may have only been half paying attention, unskilled, or inebriated. Unknown; however, the captioning is quite odd...
.... By the way, I had no idea how the story was going to progress or how it would end, and my thoughts along the way about certain things that would or would not happen were incorrect. However, one knows, by default and from how the movie starts, the basic reason for the Young Mariner's despair.
Overall "Hide Away" is beautifully done from several standpoints and is worth seeing for a thoughtful, careful unfoldment of a real human living out a period of the beginning of some measure of healing and psychological and emotional recovery.
