Now he is set to put the Outer Hebrides on the international movie map with a new Scottish cinematic love story.

Shot three years ago on the Isle of Lewis, where his story is also set, Nobody Has To Know sees Lanners play Phil, a Belgian farmhand left with amnesia after suffering a stroke, who is told by the farmer’s daughter that they have been secret lovers .

Game of Thrones, Suits and 24 star Michelle Fairley plays Millie, who is helping Phil with his recovery. She insists their rekindled relationship must remain a secret in the close-knit Hebridean community.

A Scottish-French-Belgian co-production, Lanners’ film, which was awarded £500,000 from government agency Screen Scotland.

Lanners wrote, directed and starred in the film, one of three features made on Lewis in the last few years.

He said: “I had been coming to Scotland on holiday for well over 30 years before I made this film. Sometimes I would come two or three times a year – I really love the country.

“When I was a lot younger, I was sure I was Scottish. I don’t know where that came from, because I was from a poor family and we didn’t really go on holiday. It might have come from something I had read or a movie.

“The first time I went to Scotland it was like a revelation to me. I’ve been everywhere now except for St Kilda.

“I went to Lewis on holiday about seven years ago. It was a bit of a shock to me at first because the influence of the church is so strong, but I felt that the people were so friendly.

“I kept telling my wife that I wanted to make a film in Scotland and decided to stay in Lewis to write something. I rented a house and stayed there for seven months.

“At first I thought I would write a thriller, but when I was there I was listening to the band Soulsavers, especially their track Wise Blood. The mix between the music and the suddenly landscape made me want to make a love story – it just felt so emotional and romantic.”

Nobody Has To Know, which also stars Harry Potter and Indiana Jones star Julian Glover and Glasgow-born screen star Cal MacAninch, will get its UK premiere next month at the Glasgow Film Festival.

Organizers have billed the film as a “quietly touching, unabashed weepie.”

Lanners added: “I actually got the idea for the story after going to church to try to meet the local people.

“After a few weeks, everybody on Lewis seemed to know who I was and that I was writing a movie there.

“I didn’t want to write about two young, beautiful people. I wanted to write about two normal people in their fifties, because love can happen at any time in your life.

“The movie is set in the modern-day but the exceptional thing about Lewis is that the landscape looks as if the film could be set in the 19th century. I don’t think you can get that anywhere else. Filming was an amazing experience .”