HAAR -Premiere - LOndon BFI Oct 7 2023

"Haar’  is the word for a cold Scottish sea fog, although Ben Hecking’s  appealing second feature is shot in Budapest, where a TV production  manager named Jef (Kate Kennedy) is spending her last day tying up loose  ends. The film is not cold either, despite being set in a bitter  January: its painstaking realisation in the rare Super8 format is  pleasingly fuzzy. Haar refers to Jef’s condition as she reaches  a crisis point in what has been an emotionally shut-off existence.  Small, but seductive, this film is a sweet reminder of the power of  small crews and a passion for craft.

A sweet reminder of the power of small crews and a passion for craft
 

Hecking, also serving as cinematographer, has set himself a challenge  in filming this self-penned day-in-the-life essay in Super8, or DS-8 to  be more precise. He embraces all the options that affords, marrying its  quirks and limitations to Haar’s emotional beats together with  editor Callum Read (flares, scratches and editing marks are embraced.)  Actor Kate Kennedy, who helped develop the role of Jef, makes an impact,  alongside sound designer Alasdair Reid’s innovative work. There are not  many more names on the credits of Haar, but those looking for a feminine side to recent UK work like Mark Jenkin’s Bait, or the 70s-inspired technical elements of Peter Strickland’s films, will be enticed. 

Hecking’s film has a New Wave feel, helped by Jacques Brel’s closing  track ‘Jef’ – not to mention that Jef is the name of Alain Delon’s  character in Le Samourai.  Here, though, Jef is so-named  because her father wanted a boy, and her troubled relationship with him  forms the bedrock of the film, although we never see or hear him. 

As we meet her, Jef is busy closing up the Budapest soundstages used  by the TV show ‘Time Travelling Vampire Pirates’: she is always on the  phone, multi-tasking, brisk, competent. She is professionally friendly  and efficient, but operating at a deliberate emotional remove. She sees  that dad is calling her, but does not pick up – later, she answers her  mother to be told that he has suffered three heart attacks in rapid  succession. “I can come back…” offers Jef, haltingly.

Jef is attractive despite – or perhaps because of – that icy sliver  of distance that is often to be found in those whose job requires  friendliness on a professional basis. (Conveying this is a feat newcomer  Kennedy carries off well.) But it is going to be a difficult day for  her. Jef’s flight out of Hungary has been cancelled, and her lover (she  has been sleeping with the talent) has left behind a few things for her  to deal with: she is much keener on the rabbit than she is on the fancy  ring in his apartment. Phone sex is followed by a party and an encounter  with a former lover (Fehinti Balogun) but the cracks – or the Haar –  are appearing in Jef’s forward-facing facade.

When she starts to faint, and bad news from home brings on a dark  night of the soul, Jef is helped by her Romanian driver (Balazs Czukor) –  someone she had previously dismissed and who is more than he appears.  Although it is clear from Kennedy’s performance that Jef is unlikely to  change, it’s an experience to watch her fumble her way through to a new  dawn of a new day, but as the same old Jef. Between Kennedy and Hecking,  they havee created a character who seems very much familiar but also  new and of the moment. Presenting this in the flickering Super8 mode is a  lovely juxtaposition which makes the experiment work.

This is Hecking’s second film after Provenance, a story of a  newly-minted expat couple in France, so the outsider perspective is  clearly where he feels at home. Although it is possibly even  smaller-scale, Haar is a flexing of muscles from a young team.  Whatever it took – time, sweat and tears undoubtedly – to tame the  Super8 was worth it. The financial rewards for this kind of dedication  may be slight but, when the film is seen, it will truly be seen for the  labour of love that it is.

Production companies: Afinia Films, White Horse Films

International sales: Grenofen Films, grenofenfilms@gmail.com

Producers: Carolina Cordero, Patricia D’Intino, Kate Kennedy, Ben Hecking, Jez Marshall, Leo Pinter

Screenplay: Ben Hecking

Cinematography: Ben Hecking

Art director: Jennifer Gindele

Editing: Callum Read

Music/sound design: Alasdair Reid

Main cast: Kate Kennedy, Balazs Czukor, Fehinti Balogun, Claudia Jolly, Jack Morris"