Co-directors/co-writers Linden Feng and Hannah Palumbo’s short film A Bear Remembers is a hauntingly beautiful picture that could easily be mistaken for a live-action version of a Studio Ghibli fable, but directed by Werner Herzog.
In a small, isolated English town in the middle of nowhere, an infernal metallic clanging that persists in the hills along the border of the village eternally plagues the townsfolk. While the locals suffer in silence, tourists and curiosity seekers come from miles around to seek the source of the mysterious, unending noise.
A media crew leads us into the company of our protagonist, a local boy named Peter (Lewis Cornay), as they wander the misty hills. With the clanging occurring repetitiously in the background, Peter tells the crew that if they want some good footage, they should venture higher up. He also informs them he’s a filmmaker and attempts to give them some of his drone footage for their program.
The crew politely ignores Peter and pushes forward with their own agenda. Undismayed, Peter continues alone, relaunching his drone, ever on the hunt for images that will finally divulge the secret of the merciless clattering, which, like an aggravating specter, refuses to die.
“… In the hills near a small isolated English town an infernal metallic clanging persists …”
After Peter strikes up a conversation with an old cleaning woman (Anna Calder-Marshall) and shows her his footage, she recalls a memory of a Bear (Rhianna Compton) that roamed the forests and was known and loved by children.
The tale beckons to the boy so much that he encourages the old woman to trek with him into the hills, hoping to find the bear, uncovering the secret of its music and its power to entrance and enchant. The next day, under skies of grey, the pair set off into the mists of the heights.
At length, they follow the noise up into the wide-open spaces, till at last, they encounter the Bear. Together then, on a blanket that the old woman’s mother made when she was a girl, the boy, the bear, and the old woman share stories. Finally, after trying as they might to recover and remember something of the songs and dances of a time long gone, the Bear departs, stating that he cares no longer to roam in a place in which he is forgotten.
The real magic of this Faberge egg of a short film is how it handles so much depth with such exquisite economy. The engrossing and profound tale of the lost and found nature of our youth and how we dig back through them to rekindle dreams is so eloquently told here that the film need not be any longer.
There is a beauty in simplicity that we lose sight of as we become deeper ensconced in the world’s chaos. A Bear Remembers finds it for us again. Here, in a quiet little story that tells us we should rejoice in memory, but also have grace in letting go. All life is a dance, and it was never about where you end up on the floor, just the fact that you were part of it.
"…a quiet little story about rejoicing in memory"
