Atlas was the leader of the Titans who after his defeat at the hands of Zeus was cursed to hold up the world. He was given a reprieve in the form of Hercules, who during his eleventh labour, held up the world in exchange for Atlas taking three golden apples of the Hesperides. Atlas did not want to return to his burden, but Hercules played a trick on him by handing the earth to him while he said he had to adjust his cloak. As soon as Atlas had the earth on his shoulders once more Hercules hotfooted it out of there.
Sam Voutas’ indie comedy Yesterday Island uses the story of Hercules and Atlas as an anchor to his surreal and inventive film. Somewhere between Tasmania and Antarctica is a small island with a tiny group of environmental scientists and a mission leader. However, the mission leader isn’t leading anything as the island is stuck in a time-loop that only the person in that position is aware of. Once, who knows how long ago, it was a woman named Inga from Norway. Presently, it is an ex-poetry teacher named Dusty (Francis Greenslade) who has called upon a former pupil to do him a small favour. Watch the station for a day while he does something on the mainland.
The guest is Amos (Ivan Aristeguieta) a former writer turned substitute teacher who hopes that the natural surrounds might give him some inspiration. He’s not entirely sure why Dusty got in touch, nor why he’s now a scientist. “Things get repetitive here,” Dusty tells Amos and it takes a short while for Amos to work out that statement was literal.
Amos gets a call from the zoologists Lucien (David Fane) and Ruby (Fiona Crombie) and when he explains, as he was told he should, that he’s a friend of Inga’s they invite him around for a board game – The Labours of Hercules. Lucien and Ruby have no idea that every day they are murdered by Martin (Phillip Hunting), who was in charge of controlling invasive bird species before he went insane. Martin then shoots himself. It makes no difference because at midnight the calendar clicks back to the previous day. Amos could try to intervene, but they’ll be alive the next day and he’ll still only have tinned spaghetti and marshmallows to eat, plus a disgusting toilet to clean and a dead seabird to dispose of. There’s also a never-ending supply of vodka.
An unintentional hint from Lucien and Ruby sets Amos on to a solution for his predicament. Behind a photograph of Inga, he finds (in Norwegian) the instruction, “For freedom tomorrow, give another the burden of yesterday.” Dusty wrote the rules more particularly. To get off the island and go back into real time you must find someone to replace you. You can’t leave without a replacement as the boat will sink. You can’t replace yourself with the boatman because he’s not part of the game.
This knowledge leads Amos into a ruthlessness he didn’t know he possessed. He told Dusty that his divorce was, as the Venezuelans say, mixing the mango and the rice. In other words, he doesn’t have any fondness for his ex-wife. He calls Gemma (Florence Noble) to the island so he can go collect an award for “Botanism.” It doesn’t take long until the pair are arguing. It’s difficult for Amos to forgive Gemma for cheating on him, and even worse, he finds out she had a son with the man. Gemma’s not the nicest of people, but she’s also not the worst (don’t worry, they’re coming), and although Amos did manage to swap places with her, when he realises he accidentally took the satellite phone with him, he relents and goes back to the station hut and explains just what he got her into.
The next step is finding people to replace them and the natural choice is the successful novelist Nicole (Genevieve Neve), who stole Amos’ story idea for her first book and her equally unbearable husband Travis (Luke Salibar) who are lured to the island for a filmed apology from Amos for him making the plagiarism issue public. Inherently unlikeable and pretentious (Nicole uses an American accent to hide that she’s from Geelong), Nicole and Travis are the kind of people no one really would miss, but what happens when they get wise to the situation?
Yesterday Island is wryly amusing and filled to the brim with great character work especially from Ivan Aristeguieta and Florence Noble as bitterly divorced exes who find they’re still capable of co-operation, and more so, forgiveness and friendship. Writer/director Sam Voutas uses a clever device of “restarting” the film every time a new guest arrives on the island. The roles are defined as “Host” “Guest” “The Zoologists” “The Madman” “The Sailor” and a special role for “The Hated Friends.”
Another point in favour of Yesterday Island is the construction of realistic zero-funding research cabins and a night sky lit by the Aurora Australis that not a single person on the island bothers to look at. After all, it will be there the next night and the next and the next and the next. The radio plays maddening tunes from no later than 1924 that make the time loop seem even more egregious if it weren’t already bad enough, plus, there are only Norwegian copies of Nicole’s novel for reading material.
Perhaps the best thing about Sam Voutas’ inventive black comedy is that it’s near impossible to avoid thinking of people you’d willingly send to the island, proving that there’s a bit of pettiness to all of us, and certainly some malleable ethics. Voutas does give at least Amos some level of guilt about damning people to spend eternity in a day, but the script really isn’t above plain meanness as fun.
Yesterday Island matches its narrative to its fiscal limitations and comes up with something, if not wholly unique, solidly and enjoyably inventive. I have a lot of respect for a film about holding grudges that both enjoys the concept and comedically questions how far they should go.
Director: Sam Voutas
Screenplay: Sam Voutas
Cast: Ivan Aristeguieta, Florence Noble, David Fane, Fiona Crombie
Cinematography: Alexander Noughton
Yesterday Island is playing MIFF 2026
