A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness

Musician Robert AA Lowe, known principally from his intense performances under the name of Lichens, plays an anonymous man in three seemingly different phases of his life. Directors Ben Rivers and Ben Russell show him philosophising at a 15-strong commune on the small island of Vormsi in Estonia; alone and isolated in the majestic wilderness of Hyrynsalmi in northern Finland; and during a wild concert as singer and guitarist of a black-metal band in Oslo, hypnotically filmed in a single take.

Like much of their previous work, this first, close cooperation between experimental filmmakers Rivers and Russell is full of symbolism, slowly-changing landscapes, rituals, and nomads who have withdrawn from society. Loneliness, Utopia and ecstasy succeed one another in a meandering triptych without commentary, somewhere between fiction and non-fiction. In this way, the makers strive to create space for uncertainty and mystery in an age when everything has to be explained. Also see Let Us Persevere in What We Have Resolved Before We Forget in combined programme Before We Forget in Spectrum Shorts.

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