Rivers, Ben. Two Years at Sea. London: Soda Pictures, 2011. 16 mm, 88 min.
A man called Jake lives in the middle of the forest. He goes for walks in whatever the weather and takes naps in the misty fields and woods. He builds a raft to spend time sitting in a loch and drives a beat-up jeep to pick up wood supplies. He is seen in all seasons, surviving frugally, passing the time with strange projects, living the radical dream he had as a younger man, a dream he spent two years working at sea to realise. Two Years at Sea is less a documentary as such, more an impressionistic portrait, or a film poem. Its subject is Jake Williams, who lives in a tumbledown house in the Cairngorms (it actually looks more like two houses that have collided violently at right angles). The film, without commentary or dialogue, never tells us that Williams is a hermit as such, but it’s clear that he lives a solitary life—and, though it’s one that most of us would find unbearable, what emerges is the sense of a truly happy existence. (Source: The Independent)
© 2011 Soda Pictures. Trailer used with permission.
