People bring pieces of their own lived experience to any performance, drawing on what they’ve been through to emote in a given scene or to relate to something affecting their characters. But tapping too much into one’s own personality can be dangerous since it might bring up difficult memories or surface problematic realities that can’t simply be forgotten once the cameras are shut off. And Her Body Was Never Found takes mixing business with pleasure to the extreme, blurring the lines in a way that makes it so they don’t exist at all.
Jeff (Polaris Banks) and Keren (Mor Cohen) are hiking together with large backpacks on, heading to an idyllic spot to go camping. They’re having trouble finding the beauty in nature, however, since they can’t stop fighting. When Jeff makes a comment about how he could just push Keren off a cliff and no one would ask any questions, things take a very serious turn. Everything escalates even more when she tries to prove she trusts him and he pushes it further, at which point Jeff and Keren become Polaris and Mor filming this movie and having a series of arguments just as intense as their invented characters.
There are so many layers to this film that it’s hard to know what’s real and what’s made up, and that’s the point. The real Polaris and Mor, who are married, introduced this film’s final SXSW screening, explaining that they conceived of this project together and used actual arguments they had had as the basis for the script. Watching the finished product, it’s still impossible to tell where Jeff and Keren end and the fictional Polaris and Mor begin, and how either of those couples relates to the real Polaris and Mor, who are obviously able to get along well enough to make a movie together.
In addition to this film’s deliberately meta style, it also proudly advertises that it was made by two people. While music was added later and there are additional producers credited, the footage was shot entirely by its leads, who also share a writing credit while Polaris is listed as the sole director. It runs just seventy-five minutes, but every one of those feels interesting and compelling, daring audiences to try to look away and escape the deep discomfort that comes from these two people being alone together and at each other’s throats. It’s an incredibly impressive two-handed effort that absolutely pays off.
Those watching will find themselves enthralled and occasionally frightened for Mor’s safety (and for Polaris too at times). Recognizing elements of fights they’ve had with their own current or past partners likely won’t be pleasant, but this film wants to bring all that out into the open, not because its characters are dealing with it in a healthy way, but because sometimes it’s critical to actually say what you’re feeling in order to be able to move past it. Traveling far from civilization without any witnesses at such a volatile time in a relationship certainly isn’t recommended, but this film is able to glean something for its characters – and its audience – that a less isolated experience couldn’t possibly simulate. Which partner is making the argument audiences agree with more doesn’t matter since they’re both at their breaking points, which is never a good place to continue a conversation.
This film’s title, taken from a threatening line Polaris utters to mock Mor’s fear that he is indeed trying to kill her, may scare off some audiences, but hopefully it will intrigue just as many. These two filmmakers have accomplished something that lasts much longer than just seventy-five minutes, sticking with audiences after the credits flash across the screen. With literally just the tools they’re carrying, and the iPhone footage they captured, this couple has transferred the worst parts of their own marriage into something audiences can see and learn from, and which hits dramatic and comedic beats in an impressive way. There isn’t anything else quite like And Her Body Was Never Found, a unique specimen that offers up so much to consider and will leave audiences with the best thought-provoking, maddening questions.
Movie Rating: 8/10
