The big wait

15 MINUTES

In the outback, a town of two awaits visitors to their emergency airport

Greg and Kate Barrington are the only two permanent residents of Forrest, Australia. Located in an exceptionally remote stretch of southwestern Australia, the town exists solely to accompany a small airport for planes making emergency landings. As Forrest’s caretakers, the couple keeps the town’s airstrip and six rarely occupied cottages in pristine condition. In The Big Wait, the London-based director Yannick Jamey revels in the surreality of the scene, capturing Greg and Kate as they ride their bikes and race a car down the runway, and keep the town’s lawns green amid a vast sea of red outback dirt. But, more than just a portrait of an unusual place, the film captures the distinct joys, lonelinesses and peculiarities of a life lived far from other people and the broader concerns of society at large.

Director: Yannick Jamey

Producer: Lucy Pijnenburg

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