Finding Farley (2009)
The prospect of a 5,000-km journey across the Canadian wilderness is daunting, to say the least. In Finding Farley, Leanne Allison and her husband Karsten Huer not only embrace the challenge, but do so with their dog and two-year-old son in tow. The film follows the family’s expedition from Canmore, Alberta to the Nova Scotian home of Farley Mowat, one of Canada’s most beloved authors. Over the course of three months, the family hiked, canoed, drove and sailed along a route inspired by the settings of Mowat’s novels, exploring first-hand the wildlife depicted in his writing.
Finding Farley occasionally threatens to become overly sentimental, but for the most part, Allison and Huer let the beauty of the Canadian landscape speak for itself. The couple shot the film with an HD camera, and this simple technique effectively captures impressive beauty of the nature they experienced. Finding Farley also features a subtle political message, though not an insignificant one: the film briefly juxtaposes hydroelectric dams and oil rigs with images of a caribou rising majestically out of the water and beluga whales gliding alongside the family’s canoe, emphasizing the importance of environmental conservation. Finding Farley, then, is not only about meeting Farley Mowat, but about discovering and preserving the natural wonders of Canada that he celebrates in his writing.
Rosmarinus Officinalis (2008)
Rosmarinus Officinalis opens with a young couple driving through the hills of Crete. In contrast to the serene setting of the countryside, the atmosphere inside their car is tense. Aris (Nikos Georgakis) is nervous about getting to a scientists’ convention and is unleashing his anxiety on his wife, Melina (Athina Maximou). Much to his chagrin, their car breaks down, forcing them to spend the night at the home of Leutharios (Petros Fyssoun), a mysterious old man with an extensive collection of herbal remedies and a particular affinity for rosemary.
Rosmarinus Officinalis clocks in at 20 minutes. While one can’t expect it to offer much in the way of significant character development in such a short time, the characters’ lack of complexity detracts from the film’s otherwise promising plot. Leutharios completely conforms to the archetype of a mystical old man in his otherworldly omniscience and failure to say anything that isn’t enigmatic. Melina is completely devoid of dimension, never really expressing any emotion other than calm complacency. By the film’s end, Leutharios is supposed to have prompted Aris to an epiphany on the nature of life and love, but Aris’s sudden transition from a petulant grouch into an attentive husband is not particularly convincing.
Bird’s Nest (2008)
Xiangma, the spirited young hero of Bird’s Nest, lives in a rural village inhabited by China’s Miao minority. He receives a letter from his father, who describes the work he is doing in Beijing as “building a bird’s nest for the games.” Xiangma’s friend bets him 750 kilograms of firewood that this “bird’s nest” is, in fact, a house for birds. Convinced that this isn’t the case, but not entirely sure what his father was referring to, Xinangma embarks on a mission to earn enough money to travel to Beijing and see the project for himself.
In a particularly memorable scene, Xiangma attempts to negotiate a selling price for his favourite necklace. He points out its beautiful design, and simply cannot understand why the shopkeeper refuses to pay him for anything beyond the value of its silver embossment. This collision between a traditional worldview and the fast-paced, money-centric mentality of industrialized society manifests itself in many forms in Bird’s Nest. Xiangma’s father was, of course, describing the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium in his letter, but what really propels Xiangma’s journey is not simply the desire to discover the true nature of the “bird’s nest.” Really, Xiangma wants to convince his father to return home from Beijing, where he has gone to make money. Barring a few ridiculously clichéd scenes (think father and son running towards one another in slow motion with music soaring in the background), Bird’s Nest is a fascinating and poignant film about the intersection of old and new within a rapidly changing China.
