The Plains

The life of Andrew, a middle class lawyer living in Melbourne, is routine—every day he drives from his house to his office and returns at sunset. In each of the trips, he talks with his mother, listens to the radio and gives a workmate, with whom he has built a relationship based on trust, a ride home. Over the course of three hours, David Easteal places the camera and the spectator in the back seat of Andrew’s car in order to hear his conversations, get to know his story and join him on his way back to his place. But what makes this long journey about a common man in ordinary circumstances such a fascinating film? Some works are hard to explain. Some are indescribable due to their convoluted plot or their abstraction, while others are just hypnotic experiences that need not be reduced to words. The Plains is a clear example of the latter.