HUMAN TRACES
New Zealand, 2017, 82 minutes, Colour.
Sophie Henderson, Mitch Mitchenson, Vinnie Bennett, Milo Cawthorne.
Directed by Nic Gorman.
This film opens like an anthropological study, insertion of black-and-white footage throughout the credits, men getting supplies and sailing towards an island in the Southern Ocean. While this is the background to Human Traces, it is actually a psychological thriller. And it has a number of twists.
There is a changing of the guard on the island, the group going back to New Zealand, a new group coming in, especially scientist Glenn and his associate, his former student, Sarah. It seems that Glenn is an idealist, critical of human behaviour and its effect on evolution, wanting to study animal life on the island – and then revealing that he wanted to stay there, abandoning civilisation.
The film is divided into three parts. The initial focus is on Sarah, her background, farewelling the previous group, meeting a newcomer, unexpected, in the squad, Riki. There is a mutual attraction that she is loyal to her husband. However, pressure increases and she wants to radio New Zealand and for a helicopter be sent. The radio was broken, Glenn unwilling to fix it. Then Riki disappears, presumed drowned. Sarah then decides to inflict wounds on Glenn so that someone will have to come to rescue him, tying him up, stabbing him with a scalpel – although he is able to move and goes to the fields to the cliffs.
The second part of the film focuses on Glenn. More is explained about his background and his attitudes, some scenes with Sarah, more scenes with Riki, interrogating him, puzzled about his background and his presence on the island, warning him away from Sarah. There is also the episode where Riki disappears – and Glenn returning and being stabbed.
The third part of the film focuses on Riki. He has a Maori background, has been sacked from a job, has been given a job on a boat by an in-law. There is a young intern who settles on the boat – and the audience has previously seen that he is dead, wrapped in a tarpaulin. In fact, the boat smuggles drugs. The young intern can’t swim and, intentionally or not, Riki pulls him into the water. He has absorbed the intern’s background, change his passport (something which has troubled Glenn), and the audience sees him on the island, his work, the attraction towards Sarah, and a celebration of her birthday with party hats and crackers.
However, he is wanting to recover the drugs which have been hidden in a cave, is disturbed when the body of the Intern surfaces when it was not expected to.
The audience is left with an unfinished story after a probing of the three characters and their interactions.
