Dir. Ben Rivers
2024 | 86 mins | UK, Germany, Iceland | English
Jake Williams

Over a decade on from Two Years at Sea (2011), Ben Rivers returns to the ramshackle home of forest-dwelling hermit Jake Williams; Bogancloch. Nestled in a vast highland forest of Scotland, the film portrays his life throughout the seasons, with other people occasionally crossing into his otherwise solitary life.

At the heart a song, an argument between life and death, each stating their case to rule over the world. The film is without exposition, it aims at something less recognisable, a different existence of reality observed in discrete moments.

A sequel to Two Years at Sea (2011), is an intimate, experimental documentary charting a subtly changing life in a radically changing world.

‘Ben Rivers’ glorious new film continues his fascination with a Scottish forest-dweller. The pleasure of the film is that, if you are willing to spend some time with Jake on his own terms, there is an ease that comes with it’ Sight & Sound

About Ben Rivers:

Ben Rivers was born in Somerset, UK in 1972 and lives and works in London. Rivers’ films are typically intimate portrayals of solitary beings or isolated communities; his practice as a filmmaker treads a line between documentary and fiction. Rivers uses these themes as a starting point from which to imagine alternative narratives and existences in marginal worlds.