Lives change course after a chance encounter between a construction worker and an academic in Bas Devos’s microscopically detailed gem of a film
Belgian director Bas Devos’s gentle, delicate and quietly beguiling movie, a prize winner last year in Berlin, is about love and fate. It crept up on me at its own measured walking pace – and it incidentally has the best and cleverest last line of any film I have seen this year.
Stefan (Stefan Gota) is a Romanian construction worker in Brussels who is preparing to go back home for a summer holiday, but isn’t at all sure how long he’ll stay or if he’ll ever come back. He wanders around handing out plastic containers of his homemade soup as farewell gifts to the friends he’s made around the place. Meanwhile, Shuxiu is a Chinese grad student in bryology working on a...
Belgian director Bas Devos’s gentle, delicate and quietly beguiling movie, a prize winner last year in Berlin, is about love and fate. It crept up on me at its own measured walking pace – and it incidentally has the best and cleverest last line of any film I have seen this year.
Stefan (Stefan Gota) is a Romanian construction worker in Brussels who is preparing to go back home for a summer holiday, but isn’t at all sure how long he’ll stay or if he’ll ever come back. He wanders around handing out plastic containers of his homemade soup as farewell gifts to the friends he’s made around the place. Meanwhile, Shuxiu is a Chinese grad student in bryology working on a...
- 6/5/2024
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
It might seem counterintuitive to suggest that an 83-minute film qualifies as a work of Slow Cinema, but to classify the beautifully meditative “Here” as anything else would be disingenuous. Unfolding like a series of loosely connected memories, Bas Devos’ fourth feature is a portrait of a fleeting connection between two lost souls that unfolds with the voyeurism of a nature documentary and the comforting precision of a crisp Asmr recording. With a plot so sparse that even a one-sentence summary threatens to spoil an hour of the movie, “Here” manages to present some of the most striking moving images in recent memory by leaning into the same minute details that its protagonist struggles to recognize in his own daily life. Devos’ soft directorial touch elevates what could have been a simple short film into a reflection on the small joys we choose to miss that packs a punch far greater than its runtime.
- 2/11/2024
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
Emerging on the international cinema scene with a trio of tender yet emotionally exacting features in Violet, Hellhole, and Ghost Tropic, Belgian director Bas Devos has turned a new leaf with Here. The Berlinale prizewinner is a moviegoing experience as gorgeous as it is tranquil, following Stefan (Stefan Gota), a Romanian worker who begins forming connections with both nature and a bryologist named Shuxiu (Liyo Gong). The simplicity of the narrative is one of the film’s strong suits, Devos luxuriating in the gestures on display, from gifting soup to uncovering the ground beneath your feet.
I caught up with Devos at the U.S. premiere of Here at the 61st New York Film Festival, where we discussed the origins of the project, the film’s strong visual language, exuding a sense of compassion, the strange power of moss, and more. Ahead of the film’s theatrical run beginning this...
I caught up with Devos at the U.S. premiere of Here at the 61st New York Film Festival, where we discussed the origins of the project, the film’s strong visual language, exuding a sense of compassion, the strange power of moss, and more. Ahead of the film’s theatrical run beginning this...
- 2/8/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Here. Stay here. See what the news is going to be tomorrow. Graves grow no green that you can use. Remember, green’s your color. You are Spring. —Gwendolyn Brooks, “To the Young Who Want to Die”Cynicism has no place in Bas Devos’s Here (2023), a meshwork of small utopias in which the most urgent problem, on the surface of things, is the prospect of some vegetables going to waste. Set in Brussels, the nominal center of the European Union, this hopeful film takes shelter from present political crises and follows two placid characters, a first-generation Romanian migrant and a second-generation Chinese Belgian academic, whose narratives of minor events entwine in two chance encounters. They take cover from the rain with each other. They cross paths on wooded trails.If the deictic of the title—that lovely, laconic “here”—signals a stance of presence, then it is a stance...
- 2/5/2024
- MUBI
Pro-tip: as our current leap year turns the page into February, it’s a good idea to stock up on artificial tears at the Cvs. Why? Because this is an exceptionally intense month for movie-watching. In addition to your 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards screeners, there’s also an exciting collection of Don’t-Miss Indies hitting theaters and streamers, from combat-heavy martial arts action sagas to gentle culinary dramas. So put on some more tea, snuggle up with your kitty, puppy, snake or waifu body pillow of choice, and get to watchin’!
True Detective: Night Country
When You Can Watch: Now
Where You Can Watch: HBO, Max
Director: Issa López
Cast: Jodie Foster, Kali Reis, Fiona Shaw
Why We’re Excited: The fourth season of HBO’s anthology crime drama is the first one for which creator Nic Pizzolatto does not serve as the showrunner or writer; those responsibilities now fall to Mexican filmmaker Issa López,...
True Detective: Night Country
When You Can Watch: Now
Where You Can Watch: HBO, Max
Director: Issa López
Cast: Jodie Foster, Kali Reis, Fiona Shaw
Why We’re Excited: The fourth season of HBO’s anthology crime drama is the first one for which creator Nic Pizzolatto does not serve as the showrunner or writer; those responsibilities now fall to Mexican filmmaker Issa López,...
- 2/2/2024
- by Su Fang Tham
- Film Independent News & More
"I go places I've never been." The Cinema Guild has revealed an official US trailer for the indie Belgian film titled Here, the latest from acclaimed low-key filmmaker Bas Devos. This originally premiered at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival last year, earning great reviews. I caught up with it at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, before it went on to screen at TIFF, AFI Fest, NYFF, and others. 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. It's a very peaceful, calm, humble film with some slow moments that let the story breathe. It allows the narrative to take its time, to let it build in its own slow-paced way, much like the moss that Shuxiu is studying. Here stars only two people: Stefan Gota...
- 1/17/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Alone at dusk in his Brussels apartment, Stefan, a gentle Romanian construction worker, speaks a few words as if to try them on for size. “This is my home,” he says, unconvinced and unconvincing. In Stefan Gota’s subdued and graceful performance, the character’s forlorn ache is unspecified and fully felt. There are sleepless nights, long walks, bowls of homemade soup and heartfelt conversations, rich in silence, with people he knows and others he’s just met. And there’s the visual conversation that frames Stefan’s story, the interplay of windblown greenery and the sharp angles of urban high-rises.
Here is writer-director Bas Devos’ fourth feature (after Violet, Hellhole and Ghost Tropic), named best film in Berlin’s Encounters section and taking its stateside bow at the New York Film Festival. It’s a modestly proportioned movie of quiet magnificence, one that feels spun of gossamer summer light and rooted in unshakeable depths.
Here is writer-director Bas Devos’ fourth feature (after Violet, Hellhole and Ghost Tropic), named best film in Berlin’s Encounters section and taking its stateside bow at the New York Film Festival. It’s a modestly proportioned movie of quiet magnificence, one that feels spun of gossamer summer light and rooted in unshakeable depths.
- 10/9/2023
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The word “here” is what linguists call deictic expression, for having little meaning or use outside of the context in which it’s uttered, whether we use it to refer to a place or as a kind of verbal gesture when we offer somebody a gift. Bas Devos’s new film thinks of the word in both of those contexts, as it tells a story that’s equally about environs and giving. It’s as if Devos conceptualizes the camera as an extension not just of the eye, but of the finger, a mechanism for pointing at things and saying, “here,” in both senses of the word.
Here is as delicate and unobtrusive a film as Devos’s previous cinematic journey through Brussels, Ghost Tropic. The story gently, elliptically slides from setting to setting as Stefan (Stefan Gota), a Romanian construction worker on the cusp of his summer vacation, delivers...
Here is as delicate and unobtrusive a film as Devos’s previous cinematic journey through Brussels, Ghost Tropic. The story gently, elliptically slides from setting to setting as Stefan (Stefan Gota), a Romanian construction worker on the cusp of his summer vacation, delivers...
- 9/7/2023
- by Pat Brown
- Slant Magazine
Belgian drama won best film in Encounters at Berlin and the Fipeseci prize.
Bas Devos’ Here, which won a brace of awards at last month’s Berlinale, has been acquired for Japan, Singapore and the US.
Beijing-based sales agency Rediance has closed deals with Sunny Film for Japan and with Anticipate Pictures for Singapore, both of which will release the film theatrically. Both deals were closed just before Filmart.
Cinema Guild, which previously acquired Devos’ Ghost Tropic from Rediance, has taken North American rights to the new film and aims to release after its North American premiere at a festival later this year.
Bas Devos’ Here, which won a brace of awards at last month’s Berlinale, has been acquired for Japan, Singapore and the US.
Beijing-based sales agency Rediance has closed deals with Sunny Film for Japan and with Anticipate Pictures for Singapore, both of which will release the film theatrically. Both deals were closed just before Filmart.
Cinema Guild, which previously acquired Devos’ Ghost Tropic from Rediance, has taken North American rights to the new film and aims to release after its North American premiere at a festival later this year.
- 3/15/2023
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
For anyone keeping tabs on Bas Devos’ career, it’s notable that the drama of his latest film Here is set in motion by something as benign as a pot of soup. A charming portrait with a flânuerial spirit, the film follows a Brussels-based Romanian construction worker who, having decided to move home, cooks what’s left in his fridge, packages it up, then gifts it to family, friends and––much later––a Belgian-Chinese woman doing a PhD in moss. She is played by Liyo Gang and he is played by Stefan Gota. It’s 81 minutes long, has relatively little dialogue, and tugs the heartstrings in all the best ways. It might be the most benevolent film of this year.
It hasn’t always been like this for Devos, a 39-year-old filmmaker from Belgium. While 2019’s Hellhole––a eulogy for a city in mourning––had style to burn, its pessimism felt strained.
It hasn’t always been like this for Devos, a 39-year-old filmmaker from Belgium. While 2019’s Hellhole––a eulogy for a city in mourning––had style to burn, its pessimism felt strained.
- 3/2/2023
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
Romantic drama began shooting on May 20.
Chinese sales agent Rediance has acquired worldwide rights to Belgian filmmaker Bas Devos’ untitled new film, which started filming last Friday (May 20).
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.
Rediance’s Beijing-based CEO Xie Meng visited Brussels to close the deal with the filmmakers while on his way to Cannes. The Chinese company previously handled Devos’ Ghost Tropic, which premiered at Cannes in Directors’ Fortnight...
Chinese sales agent Rediance has acquired worldwide rights to Belgian filmmaker Bas Devos’ untitled new film, which started filming last Friday (May 20).
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.
Rediance’s Beijing-based CEO Xie Meng visited Brussels to close the deal with the filmmakers while on his way to Cannes. The Chinese company previously handled Devos’ Ghost Tropic, which premiered at Cannes in Directors’ Fortnight...
- 5/24/2022
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
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