There are directors who don't need great artifice to move us. With four lines of dialogue, a couple of glances, and a stroll near a stream, they can tell you about their entire lives. Hong Sang-Soo is one of these directors. And Down the Stream, his new film, is proof of this as simple as it is powerful.
Starring the magnetic Kim Min-hee, Down the Stream tells the story of Jeonim, an art professor caught up in a minor university scandal. Wanting to save a play, she asks her uncle for help: a retired director, who reluctantly accepts. While the characters rehearse, confess, and walk along the edge of a torrent, Sang-Soo's films display their usual charm: small gestures laden with meaning, seemingly banal conversations that hide inner worlds, and a tranquil beauty that envelops everything.
A film about art and desire, about the passage of time and the fragility of bonds, about that which cannot be named but is sensed.
In the Current was recognized with the Best Film and Best Actress awards at the Gijón Film Festival, and the Locarno Film Festival jury didn't want to let it slip away. No wonder: Sang-Soo continues to explore, film after film, the wonder of repetition, of human imperfection, and of the paths we don't take.
You can see it at CineCiutat:
→ Friday, July 11
→ Saturday, July 12, with a presentation by filmmaker Guillermo Amengual
→ Tuesday, July 15
Always at 7:30 p.m.
Ideal for those who love cinema like those who love silence. For those who understand that great things don't have to happen for a film to shake you up.
