“HERE”— Surveying Armenia

Amos ♦ June 20, 2012 ♦ Leave Your Comment

“Here”

Surveying Armenia

Amos Lassen

Will Shepard (Ben Foster), a cartographer, is working on his newest job—he is creating a new and more accurate satellite survey of Armenia and as he works, he meets and gets to know an Armenian expatriate. Gadarine (Lubna Azabal) who is an art photographer. The two feel a connection and they begin to travel together. As they begin to develop a relationship, something happens that pulls them in opposite directions.

The cinematography of Armenia is gorgeous and this is an atypical film in that it never demands that we watch but pulls us in to take a journey with the actors. As a love story develops, ideas are brought into the film and everything builds to the end of the film which is actually beautifully simple. Directed by Braden King, this road movie moves along slowly and as it does, we get to know the characters that are disoriented and are journeying with no destination. The performances are natural and realistic and as the two travel toward disputed territory, petty arguments begin.

The film is like a poem using the landscape of Armenia as a metaphor for an undiscovered place filled with natural beauty that mixes with the result of the Soviet occupation and we get a story of loneliness and a wanderer who searches for someone. Filled with literary beauty, this is a gorgeous film.