Two Years at Sea

United Kingdom 2011, 88 mins
Director: Ben Rivers

Synopsis

A man called Jake lives alone in a ramshackle house in the middle of the forest. He goes for walks whatever the weather and takes naps in the misty fields and woods. He builds a raft to spend time fishing in a loch and drives a beat-up old jeep to pick up supplies of wood. Seen across the seasons surviving frugally and passing the time with strange projects, he is living the radical dream he had as a younger man, a dream he spent two years working at sea to realise.

Winner of a FIPRESCI Prize at the 2011 Venice Film Festival, Ben Rivers' debut feature-length work, shot on 16mm film, extends his relationship with Jake, first encountered in his short THIS IS MY LAND. The film has at its core the relationship between a person and the place they have chosen to live out their life and the deep connection there is between them.