Director: Ben Rivers

Ben Rivers’ elusive and lyrical documentary sees the director once again profiling the reclusive Scotsman Jake Williams following Rivers’ 2011 picture ‘Two Years at Sea’. That film chronicled Williams achieving his dream of moving to the forest after his time at sea. Over a decade later, Rivers is living in the titular remote farmhouse in the forest in the Scottish Highlands. With his long beard and wizened appearance, he has the appearance of a wizard. Filmed in downgraded, flickering black and white film stock, imbuing the film with a timeless almost mythical quality, it observes Williams’ quotidian life over the seasons, initially from a respectful distance, as he potters about in his dilapidated graffitied caravan. While the sound is keenly attuned to every crackle, snap and chirp of nature, human voice is unheard until half an hour in when Willliams plays some cassettes, including devotionals and some Middle Eastern music. The latter, as well as glimpses of colour photographs, serve as evocations of Williams’ past as a travelling seaman. Other than a moment of contrived pathos, in which Williams’ attempts to explain the rotation of the planet to a class of schoolchildren using a McEwan’s beer garden umbrella and models, only to be interrupted by the school bell, this is a film that allows the audience to find their own way and it can be an arresting experience for those willing to experience Williams’ life on Rivers’ terms. In the film’s most haunting moment, a choir visit and by firelight sing the Hamish Henderson Scottish poem ‘The Flyting o’ Life and Daith’ about the ebb and pull between life and death, another of the film’s themes.

David Willoughby

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