Arthouse films focused on the ties that connect humanity are a dime a dozen. But there’s nothing out there with the aim or methodology of Belgian filmmaker Bas Devos, whose new film Here takes the approach from an earthy perspective, allowing the viewer the chance to observe, as a scientist would, the recursive connections that kindness and curiosity fuel among weird little organisms like us.
Perhaps you’re not intrigued by flirtation from the moss’s point of view, but in this delicate dance between two people — doctoral student/restaurant part-timer Shuxiu (Liyo Gong) and construction worker Stefan (Stefan Gota) — we’re granted perspectives not usually offered in human interaction. Long the site of “through” or “across” for the European continent, Belgium here is the space where we see the rituals of life in a way that is somehow both earthily trippy and dizzyingly romantic, cultures meshing and what could be romance flourishing with the eye we use for looking through microscopes. The chaos engine of soaked shoes; the network created by homemade soup and a generous spirit.
This is a remarkable film to be discussed in austere labs and on the softest of sheets, a gift that maps the world and tickles the fancy from the subatomic on up.
