Preview: Two Years at Sea
The unique and evocative figure-in-a-landscape piece Two Years At Sea follows the life of its solitary protagonist, Jake Williams, in a wooded corner of remotest Scotland. As the seasons drift onwards, Jake pursues his own eccentric and occasionally fantastical pursuits, isolated from other human existence.
Wood is carefully harvested, a raft is painstakingly built to go fishing, a caravan floats up into the tree canopy as Jake sleeps within. The viewer sees Jake in his entirety – as he eats, sleeps, showers, living out a life completely on his own terms; one which he spent two years working at sea to realise. Snippets of Jake’s implied past linger at the film’s margins in old photographs. Snatches of song create mesmerising interludes and mingle with the sounds of the woods.
Monochrome and near wordless, Ben Rivers’ beautiful, meditative feature exists somewhere as bracingly free as its protagonist. Subtly radical, and patiently exploring the curious hinterlands between documentary and fiction, it is a journey not to be missed.
Oliver Marchant
Link to more info on TWO YEARS AT SEA here
TWO YEARS AT SEA screenings :-
Friday 21 October 2011, at 9pm, BFI Southbank NFT1
Monday 24 October 2011, at 1:30pm, BFI Southbank NFT1