Wayfinder-Trailer_2.mp4

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

Wayfinder is Larry Achiampong’s first feature and most ambitious film to date.
Set during a pandemic, the film tracks the movements of its central protagonist – The Wanderer, a young girl (played by Perside Rodrigues), on an intrepid journey across England.
Travelling from North to South, The Wanderer passes through different regions, towns and landscapes, encountering people, stories and situations on her way.
Presented across six chapters, including ‘The North’, ‘The Land of Smoke’ and ‘The Kingdom of the East’, this epic film builds a dialogue around the themes of class and economic exclusion, belonging and displacement, cultural heritage and the meaning of home.

With the film set during an unknown point in the not-too-distant-future during a discursive moment in time. The Wanderer acts as a witness to accounts, conversations, places and histories – both known and dormant.

Setting out from Bowness-on-Solway, a village that separates England from Scotland, the film follows the Wanderer’s journey across the ancient paths of Hadrian’s Wall and other significant environments thereafter. From Hemmingwell housing estate in Wellingborough to the National Gallery deserted at night, through the international port London Gateway (in Essex), eventually reaching the sea at Margate.

A road movie of sorts, Wayfinder draws on British traditions of travel and exploration of the sublime landscape and the sea – reflecting on division and crisis in this nation today. Addressing an unreconciled history of empire and inequality, it asks: who is allowed to feel that they belong?

The film combines sweeping shots with poetic voice-over narratives, melded with real ‘vox pop’ testimonies, field recordings and an original orchestral score composed by Achiampong.
The film’s cast includes former athlete Anita Neil OLY, who is Britain’s first Black female Olympian, Musician and Artist Mataio Austin Dean (who plays The Griot), and a trippy dialogue-driven scene (set within East London Café E. Pellicci in Bethnal Green) portrayed by Maa Afua and Russell Tovey among others.