Two Years at Sea

point a few folks are missing is that some of this is staged or improvised for the camera, which turns attention away from jake's lifestyle toward an exploration of the relationship between camera and subject. the magic-realist scene is the key; not only a blatant herzog reference but an affirmation of cinema as more than just an observational tool; rather, it ushers into existence the "imagined life", or as jake might say with a shrug and a whistle, "some stuff i never got around to trying".

Black-and-white-photographed Scottish dude does the off-grid survivalist thing for a good long while, finding his own water, food and shelter while making use of what others have left behind in a vision of a world that could be far into the future or the past, but feels like anything but the present day. Slow and meditative, with not much in the way of talking or story, it's inoffensive background viewing but I'm not sure I could sit through the whole thing glued to the screen.

Not the version of slow cinema I like

subat 12, ifistanbul & Film, kiyidan uzaklasan insanoglunu kiyiya geri goturen doga, donguye tekrar katilma arzusu ile yanip tutusan insan, izerinde huzurla uyuyarak suzuldugumuz su, bakarak agladigimiz ates, parcasi oldugumuz toprak, insanin ic sikintisi ile mucadelesi ve bu mucadele sirasinda oze, dogala siginmasi hakkindaki, kisacasi doganin ve tabii ki insanin ozu hakkinda bir is. Yonetmenin, anlam yaratan sinemanin degil, anlamin kendisine evrilen sinemanin pesinden kostuguna inaniyorum.

Interesting meditative minimalist portrait of an idealistic lifestyle, rendered in grainy hi-contrast monochrome that still can't quite dull the beauty of the Scottish Highlands or thereabouts. The variety of happenstance and touches of tension and gentle humor prevent it from feeling like a too-long short as many experimental features do.