The lovely, low-key films of the Belgian director Bas Devos have deservedly gathered an appreciative following on the festival circuit. With his 2019 picture Ghost Tropic, which follows a cleaner who falls asleep on the last train, and now Here, which finds human connections through soup-making and the study of tiny, insignificant plants, Devos has always encouraged his audience to look at the city of Brussels with fresh eyes, to see the details that might otherwise be overlooked. By making one of the central characters in Here, a Belgian-Chinese woman named Shuxiu (Liyo Gong), a bryologist – a specialist in mosses who finds endless worlds of fascination in something that most people barely notice – Devos weaves into the picture a neat metaphor for the intimacy and curiosity of his own film-making.
As with Ghost Tropic, Here views Brussels from the perspective of someone who has made a life in the city but is still some way from calling it home. Labourer Stefan (Stefan Gota) is preparing to visit his mother in Romania for an extended holiday, or perhaps longer. Before he leaves, Stefan cooks up the contents of his fridge into batches of soup to share with friends, striding through the city in his shorts to deliver his Tupperware care packages. It’s an exquisitely economical way to establish the decency and generosity of a character. Two chance encounters with Shuxiu, first in a takeaway, and later in a tranquil woodland, hint at the possibility of a relationship. Nothing is overtly stated – this is a Bas Devos film after all. But the details – a small gift (of soup, what else?) and the private smile that greets it – speak volumes.
• In UK and Irish cinemas now
