Highway

Final scene from Faris & his Last Vacation (1994)

It is a dark, small living room clustered with cheap souvenirs, lit by a few rays of evening sun. There, the air is still and pensive, dust swishing around like old magic. Most of the furniture is cloaked in shadow, only their shapes obvious. The camera follows F’s gaze, then we see the two of them both seated on different armchairs. His sister S, arms folded at the tummy and body closed. An arm comes up, cigarette to dry lips and the trail of smoke pools in the air, glittering.

S: What will you do now?

G: I’m leaving, for somewhere else.

S: ( She looks straight towards F, her gaze alive and full of speech, but then she looks away and to the ground, surrendering) Well, I’ll always be here. You’ll always have something to come home to.

G: Ok.

They hug, F standing with his back bent, while S is seated and her arms outstretched.

F moves for the door, steps outside. His car, a pale green two-seater, is seated right next to the curb. The sky beyond is an ocean blue, hint of a patient night. And the street is almost empty, though we hear the sound of bicycle bells and laughing children muted in the foreground.

F enters the car, the door slams shut and he begins to drive. Going past the curb, more of these houses-all in an indistinct blur behind the figure of F, who looks to the road ahead with a face full of loose and drifting thoughts.

He enters the highway, and the camera shifts: we see him from the outside of the car, then only the back of the vehicle. The camera follows, with every turn-but begins to slow, until finally the car overtakes, recedes into a small object, finally disappearing altogether from the screen.

F retreats to another place, and as the audience we have shared this adventure. But F is not ours to keep, he belongs to no one sure and is anchored by nothing. He finally drifts out, and the world is once again what it was: a sea of plain moments all mired to each other, a wait until the next story begins.

(For F,

"Let him get off and he'll be everywhere

Around us,looking out of trees and bushes")

…