When we are gone, what and how much do people remember of us? The Stranger is the portrait of an unconventional English artist who died alone and prematurely over twenty years ago on a remote Irish island, leaving behind in the stone shed where he lived as a hermit, without water, electricity or heating, three animal carvings and volumes of beautifully illustrated diaries. Who was this Stranger? is what the film sets out to discover, putting together the jigsaw of his life, aware of the missing pieces, the contradictions, and that fine line between reality and myth. This is a film about memory and perception that captures a most unusual portrait of an Irish-speaking island community, and their strange visitor. Was he insane, traumatized, enlightened?
