Bogancloch review – the further adventures of a Scottish hermit in Ben River’s beguiling essay

Rivers returns to document a past subject, Jake Williams, whose reclusive Scottish forest existence is fascinating but defies explanationFilm-maker Ben Rivers, one of the doyens of Britain’s small but stubborn-as-bindweed experimental film scene, catches up with Scottish recluse Jake Williams, the subject of his 2011 film Two Years at Sea and, before that, his 2006 short This Is My Land. All three films never deign to tell viewers much at all about Williams, who spends great chunks of the film doing almost nothing, like sleeping by a tree, taking a bath, or just pottering about at his home, Bogancloch in Aberdeenshire.However, there are oblique hints in plain sight if you look closely. In the bric-a-brac of Williams’ digs and the closeup shots Rivers inserts of some of Williams’ scratched and smudged photographs of places around the world he’s once visited, one of which shows the subject as a young man with a resplendent head of red hair. These days, his scalpline has much receded and both head hair and luxurious beard have turned white as a goblin, which at least makes him of a piece with the silvery black and white 16mm film stock Rivers shoots the film on. When he cuts away to those rumpled photographs, everything suddenly goes into colour. If that stab of pigment doesn’t shake you up, wait until Rivers breaks out the drone for a spectacular final shot. Continue reading...

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