FILM: HERE – SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL SERIES
Review By Duncan McLeod
Director: Braden King
Cast: Ben Foster, Lubna Azabal
Synopsis: Cartographer Will Shepard hits the road for his latest job: to create a new, more accurate satellite survey of Armenia. During his assignment, he forms a bond with an Armenian expatriate and art photographer.
Review: This is an intimately personal story about family and journeys, both emotional and physical. Two people come together, and traverse the Armenian landscape, weaving in and out of each other’s lives. Will is a cartographer in Armenia to map the landscape under contract of a faceless corporation. Lubna has come home to refuel but is faced with unwanted demons.
In THE MESSENGER and THE MECHANINC, Foster presents himself as a convincing supporting actor. HERE affords him the opportunity to assert himself as a convincing leading man. His manner and physicality work in harmony with his face to convey a mood without words and he commands the screen with ease.
Gadarine Nazarian is both credible and captivating as Lubna. Born in Brussels you wouldn’t know to look at her she wasn’t Armenian as she blended in so well with the locals on location. The Armenians in the audience at my particular screening said her dialect was pretty good and the rest of us were none the wiser. Nazarian has appeared in the Ridley Scott film BODY OF LIES as well as the well known PARADISE NOW and recent hit INCENDIES . The chemistry between these two was palpable. Their developing romance at the heart of the story was well-realized and executed with great skill.
What fell short for this reviewer was the character development in terms of history. We get that Lubna has a troubled past with her brother. We hear that her parents are surprised to see her. What we don’t fully realise is why, and this is not one of those times when the technique of ‘leave the audience wanting more’ should be employed.
That being said, the audience is lumbered with enough emotion and drama to stay with this central couple, and when their emotional peak is reached, we are invested enough to go with them.
Being a film about a cartographer, there are obligatory long and wide shots of landscape. Not all of them are pointless. Director Braden King has served up a piece that is equal parts indie drama and art-infused dreamscape.
This is an American production that was shot entirely on location in Armenia. Whilst the casting of Foster illustrates the American influences, this looks and feels very much a foreign film and that is a testament to King’s creative vision.
King co-wrote this film with Australian travel writer Dani Valent who was present at the screening and took questions after the film. Valent said this film was developed largely through the Sundance Director and Writer Labs and then by phone and email. So this was essentially a global project about two people journeying through a literally unmapped part of the world and falling in love with each other and the landscape.
The Australian influence in the script was not entirely present save for the most humorous of moments. This being the discovery that whilst language barriers exist all over the world, the ability to hold your liquor is a universal skill.
