Mare’s Nest
Experimental filmmaker and visual artist Ben Rivers blends fiction, fable and poetic essay to create Mare’s Nest. Set in a near-future world without any adults, the film centres around Moon (Moon Guo Barker), an adventurous and curious young girl who encounters various strange characters throughout her travels, each embodying their own ways of living. Divided into a collection of chapters which could operate as their own short films, Rivers’s latest work is a hypnotically strange road trip that’s often more confusing than it is profound.
The movie opens with the youngster telling a turtle her version of the origin of life. From here, she meets a sage and a translator in a mountain hut, encounters a commune of unruly kids, and meets someone with a collection of bizarre musical instruments. Barker is tremendous throughout, delivering long streams of dialogue with the maturity of someone much older. Rivers likewise demonstrates a keen eye for visual storytelling through picturesque long-shots that colour this adult-free world as an eerily desolate but wondrous place.
The chapters of Moon’s journey work to varying degrees of success. A meeting with a tribe of children, which descends into Lord of the Flies levels of chaos, stands out as this feature’s main highlight, ensnaring viewers within its intoxicating soundtrack and captivating imagery. Other sequences, however, tend to either be strangely curious or impenetrably abstract. While the otherworldly sounds of the stranger’s collection of instruments enhance the dreamlike atmosphere, it’s difficult to discern whether the nonsensical riddles the characters speak during the encounter with the sage and the translator (inspired by a play by author Don DeLillo) are intended to be humorously surreal or completely serious. This section, alongside the other weaker vignettes, is likewise stretched out with prolonged shots of Moon walking in silence, subsequently making this relatively short film feel much longer than it is.
Although this feature’s inconsistent quality will likely leave some viewers underwhelmed at points, Barker’s strong performance and Rivers’s bold direction mean that there’s still a lot to appreciate about this experimental fairy tale.
Andrew Murray
Mare’s Nest does not have a release date yet.
Read more reviews from our Locarno Film Festival coverage here.
For further information about the event visit the Locarno Film Festival website here.
Watch the trailer for Mare’s Nest here:
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