Here

A chance encounter changes two people’s lives in Here, the remarkable fourth feature from Belgian writer-director Bas Devos. This deceptively slender tale about a Romanian construction worker and a Belgian-Chinese bryologist (an expert in the study of moss and lichen) keeps its principal characters separate for most of the film’s 84-minute running time. But with gorgeous precision, Devos slowly brings these mismatched individuals into each other’s orbit, in the process crafting a quietly overwhelming study of human connection and our relationship with the natural world. Hardly a conventional love story, but achingly tender nonetheless, Here is fully present and dazzlingly alive.

Tim Grierson / Screen