Here (I) (2011)

Cartographer Will Shepard hits the road for his latest job: to create a new, more accurate satellite survey of Armenia. During his assignment, he forms a bond with an Armenian expatriate and art photographer.

Director:

Braden King

Writers:

Braden King, Dani Valent

Stars:

Peter Coyote, Ben Foster, Datekiv Kharibyan

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Coyote	...	Storyteller
Ben Foster	...	Will Shepard
Datekiv Kharibyan	...	Ashtarak Hotel Woman
Nareg Duryan	...	Drunk Man
Lubna Azabal	...	Gadarine Nazarian
Karapet Aleksanyan	...	Taxi Driver
Narek Nersisyan	...	Krikor Nazarian
Karine Voskanyan	...	Socialite Woman
Ashot Yerighyan	...	Socialite Man
Garik Chepchyan	...	Russian Businessman
Toma Petrosyan	...	Russian Businessman's Date
Ara Dkhtrikyan	...	Trade Minister
Alla Sahakyan	...	Party Hostess
Gauane Manoukyan	...	Market Woman
Tatevik Manoukyan	...	Market Girl

Storyline

Cartographer Will Shepard hits the road for his latest job: to create a new, more accurate satellite survey of Armenia. During his assignment, he forms a bond with an Armenian expatriate and art photographer.

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Plot Keywords:

armenia | laptop | laptop computer | map maker | narration | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Armenian

Release Date:

January 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Sorselágazás

Filming Locations:

Armenia

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lion & Wheel, Parts and Labor, Truckstop Media

Technical Specs

Runtime:

126 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Filmed in Armenia where Sergei Parajanov made his masterpiece Sayat Nova.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Storyteller: Scientists and dreamers, they travel the world with watchful eyes, and guzzle hope like water. Their journeys were separate, but their purpose was common - to map the world. One begged for money and pencils. Another tore his shirt to strips, carefully wrapping his shredded feet. Yet another, thirsty, near starving, suckled the sap from plants. None had an easy road.
Storyteller: Though utterly dependent on one another, most found the other's maps unsettling. They denied one's perspective by ...

User Reviews

Very well-shot and acted.

It certainly seems like Braden King watched a lot of Antonioni before he made his new film Here, starring Ben Foster as a cartographer on job in Armenia. With a gorgeous landscape, leisurely pace and somewhat aimless narrative, the film certainly as an air of distinctive Italian's style to it. Giving a more traditional core, however, is the relationship between Foster's Will Shepard and the beautiful Gadarine Nazarian, played by the impressive Incendies star Lubna Azabal.

Here opens with a misguided, self-important and hopelessly pointless voice-over by Peter Coyote (one which would unfortunately occur several times in transitional periods of the film), played out over an awkward montage of images, but the meat of the picture derives from that relationship between Will and Gadarine, which we get into pretty early on.

Shot with a great eye for the natural beauty of Armenia by cinematographer Lol Crawley, Gadarine works as a guide to Will on his journey across the country to perform his work, as she does her own freelance photography along with him. The relationship between the two could have used more conventional development, as an argument between them late in the film feels very abrupt and out of place, but the chemistry between Foster and Azabal is instantly palpable and really makes up for anything that's lacking in the script between the two leads.

Foster has always been an actor of explosive intensity, yet here (for the second time in 2012, after his work in the ensemble 360) he really dials that back with a more passive figure that fits rightly in tune with the tone of King's feature. There's always something working underneath those soulful eyes of his, but his Shepard is a mostly peaceful man, letting the world around him do the heavy emotional lifting.

As a contrast to Foster's take on the material, Azabal has much more vigor in her portrayal of Gadarine and the two have a back-and-forth charm that drives the picture very well. While King gets a little lost in his focus at times with a script that can occasionally be too aimless for its own good, Foster and Azabal are more than capable of keeping the picture from slagging too much as a result.

It was a very good casting decision on King's part to bring these two actors in, as both of them are skilled enough to make up for his shakiness behind the scenes while also having a naturalism to their presence that fits in with his approach when he's doing well. Here certainly goes on for too long (there's no reason this film should have run over two hours) and those voice-over sequences with Coyote have no place here, or in any film, at all, but its breathtaking scenery and impressive central performances make it worth the journey.