If Boyhood is a masterpiece solely because it was filmed over the course of 12 years, then Alexandra Anthony’s Lost in the Bewilderness will be considered some kind of triumph for humanity. In her study of Anthony’s cousin Lucas’ disappearance then reemergence, the filmmaker’s documentary is 30 years in the making, as it explores change, progression and personal stability in a time of loss.
Much like Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell, Anthony’s film on her family and their collective struggles is most resonating because it’s apparent how personal the project is, from conception onwards. While an outsider filmmaker would certainly bring some more objectivity, at its heart this is a tale that must resonate to excel. There needs to be emotions on the line, feelings lost and reborn over time and a sense of time and place. A different director maybe could bring this, but Lost in the Bewilderness, to Anthony’s credit wholeheartedly, feels very much in tune with herself and her film.
It’s never abundantly clear, though, why she took this long to make it come to the public’s eye. As she points out a little more than halfway into the feature, it’s evident this tale should have wrapped very early on, and continued to the same effect years later in a 7 Up style of filmmaking. This is not to criticize Anthony’s approach, but rather an attempt to understand what compelled her to go this far, to push herself into this other than for a greater sense of closure or some kind of novelty reason?
No matter, one should not question why a filmmaker does something as much as they should assess what they actually brought to the table. In that sense, Arnold has made a fine film, one filled with pathos, quiet observations and hearty commentary on culture and families in Greece. However, as her voyage continues following Lucas from 16 to 28 to 38 to a little bit older, we only get brief glimpses of the subject in the later points of his life.
The 28-year-old segment only encompasses about five minutes of the feature, tops, while the 38-year-old moments are even shorter than that. For all the hard work Arnold places into her personal film, it makes one wonder why she capped off on Lucas’ life journey so early in these moments? Perhaps it’s for the sake of the running time, as this is a conservative 97-minutes long? Is it possible Arnold found her cousin’s life story not nearly as interesting as she would have once thought? These questions aren’t made clear by Lost in the Bewilderness, and plague the viewer not only as the film goes on but also well after it’s over.
To Arnold’s credit, however, it’s an achievement in commitment, and it does give a sense of scale, which is given a more humble eye when knowing it’s based in reality. There’s not denying the filmmaker for not having her heart in this, and she makes an astute and wonderfully layered feature which communicates a lot about families everywhere, even those without a story as crazy as this one. This is at the heart of why Lost in the Bewilderness succeeds.
For all the confusion Arnold leaves and the decisions she made which aren’t necessarily or maybe even necessary, she still creates something personable and honest, while never losing focus of her goals or her mission. Before the screening, Arnold revealed this is the second part of a trilogy she wished to make. So who knows when audiences get around to see her follow-up to this personal documentary? Hopefully it’s not another three-decade wait.