You Won’t Be Alone is one of the most extraordinary films I’ve seen, or rather experienced, in recent memory, a deeply unusual and deeply emotive drama about a witch discovering how to be human by taking over the bodies of others in rural 19th-century Macedonia. It’s part gruesome body horror, part dreamy fairytale, part exercise in existentialism and extreme empathy told mostly through strange, fractured narration from someone learning what language is and means as they navigate an often barbaric yet often beautiful world. It’s really quite something.
“You’re gonna realise I’m an idiot really quickly,” director Goran Stolevski says, laughing, at the start of our Zoom conversation with disarming, and ultimately unwarranted, nervousness. The 36-year-old Macedonian-Australian film-maker, who quickly reveals himself to be very much not an idiot, traces the nerves back to my ebullient five-star review of his debut feature, which premiered at this year’s virtual Sundance film festival in January.
