HERE World Cinema

Recipient of the FIPRESCI Prize and Encounters Award at the Berlin Film Festival, the latest film from Bas Devos (VIOLET, AFI FEST 2014) is a wandering, delicate journey on human connections. Stefan (Stefan Gota), originally from Romania, works odd construction jobs in Brussels, waiting for life to pass him by. Having made a fresh pot of soup, he wanders around town and shares it with the people he comes across. On a rainy night in between inconsequential, yet endearing encounters, his journey intersects with that of Shuxiu (Liyo Gong), a Belgian-Chinese PhD student studying moss. From the late-night Chinese restaurant in urban Brussels to the lush mossy forest in the outskirts of town, these landscapes provide a stage in which Stefan and Shuxiu’s drifting stories are gently and fondly intertwined. Intricately restrained and marked by moments of magical realism, HERE explores the simplicity of life and unexpected kinships one may find if we paid a little more attention to the beauty around us. –Anna Li