Synopsis

Set in Brussels, the film revolves around a potential love story between a Romanian construction worker and a Belgian-Chinese doctorate student of moss, who cross paths just before the former is about to move back home.

Curator’s Note

Directed by Belgian writer-director Bas Devos, Here presents a potential relationship between a Romanian construction worker and a Belgian-Chinese young woman who works in a Chinese restaurant while doing her Ph.D. research on mosses in Brussel. Their encounter and visit to the forest seem to prove that emotions/affections between to two can be beyond languages or even cultural backgrounds. Love and compassion may only be a force of nature. The slow pace and fixed shots in the film offer a quietly overwhelming study of human connection and a sense of serenity. Here is the winner of the Berlin 2023 Encounters section and Best International Film at the Galway.

Director’s bio

Bas Devos is 39 and was born in Zoersel, Belgium. Since graduating, Bas Devos has made two shorts The Close and We Know. His first feature, Violet, won the Jury Prize at Berlinale Gener- actions in 2014 and was selected for New Directors New Films at Moma New York. His second feature was selected for the Berlinale Panorama in 2019. Ghost Tropic, his third feature, premiered three months later at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs 2019 in Cannes. Here is his fourth feature film. He teaches film at the Luca School of Arts in Brussels.

Director’s Note

As I started working on this film, I got hold of a handheld magnifying glass. When I bring piece of glass close to my eye, I see what is in front of me, magnified twenty times. I regularly go on walks with Geert Raeymaekers, a bryologist, an expert on mosses. He is a kind, warm man. Together, we gaze through our magnifying glasses at the tiny world beneath our feet. He identifies the many varied species we hold between our fingers and calls them by their mysterious Latin names. Syntrichia laevipila, Kindbergia praelonga.

Naming things is the first step in learning to look at them, writes Robin Wall Kimmerer in her book Gathering Moss. It is a way of entering into an intimate, nurturing relationship with the world……

Festival & Awards

2023: Berlin International Film Festival

- Winner: FIPRESCI Prize

- Winner: Encounters Award

Guanajuato International Film Festival Winner: Best Fiction Feature (International)

Casts

Stefan Gota, Liyo Gong

Credits

Sreenplay: Bas Devos

Producer: Marc Goyens

Assistant Director: Sofie Tusschans

Director of Photography: Grimm Vandekerckhove

Film Editor: Dieter Diependaele

Production Designer: Špela Tušar

Costume Designer: Manon Blom

Sound design: Boris Debackere

Rerecording mix: Benoit Biral

Music: Brecht Ameel

Production: Quetzalcoatl

UK Distributor: New Wave Films