Christopher Nolan's 1998 directorial debut, "Following", was inspired by a deeply personal and traumatic experience: his London flat was burgled. Whilst Nolan typically draws from history, surrealism, or cosmic themes rather than his own life, this film represents a crucial entry point where he channelled genuine feelings about invasion of privacy into a noir thriller, establishing his signature approach of finding universal emotional truths within seemingly obscure narratives.

The film follows an aspiring writer who follows strangers through London before becoming entangled in a criminal underworld. Nolan's experience of discovering evidence of a stranger rifling through his possessions proved formative; he reflected, "I found the experience hard to get out of my head." This personal violation sparked his exploration of privacy invasion and the invisible social barriers that protect us, leading him to ask what trouble such curiosity could lead to. Whilst this debut drew from Nolan's own experience, he did not establish a pattern of mining his personal life for subsequent films; instead, it served as a foundational lesson in transforming specific situations into narratives that reveal universal humanity.