El Gouna Film Festival

Director

Hong Sangsoo

Hong Sangsoo made his directorial debut in 1996 with The Day a Pig Fell into the Well. Woman is the Future of Man (2004) was his first film to screen in the main competition in Cannes. Hong's films also screened in the main competitions of Berlin,Venice, Locarno and Toronto. Hong received the Prix Un Certain Regard in Cannes for Hahaha. In Locarno he won the Silver Leopard in 2013 for Our Sunhi, and, in 2015, the Golden Leopard for Right Now, Wrong Then. In Berlin, in 2020 he won the Silver Bear for Best Director for The Woman Who Ran, and in 2022, the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize for The Novelist. In Water is his 28th film.

IN WATER(2023)

(2023)

Official Selection out of Competition, Republic of Korea (South Korea), Korean - 61 min

Director

Hong Sangsoo

Republic of Korea (South Korea) | 2023 | 61 min | Korean

Producer Hong Sangsoo
Production Company JEONWONSA Film Co.
Screenplay Hong Sangsoo
Cinematography Hong Sangsoo
Editing Hong Sangsoo
Sound Kim Hyejeong
Cast Shin Seokho, Ha Seongguk, Kim Seungyun
Contacts
International Sales: Finecut Co Ltd, sj@finecut.co.kr

About the Film

A young man who previously focused on acting suddenly decides to test his creativity, setting out to direct a short film with his own money. Together with two former classmates he arrives on a large island known for its rocks and wind. Not sure what he wants to shoot, the young man goes out wandering here and there with the other two for the entire day. Then on the coast he sees a woman picking up trash on her own, and impressed by her volunteer effort, he has a short conversation with her. Finally, thanks to that meeting he is able to create a story...

Once again Hong reflects on the meaning of filmmaking, on where the creative element can be traced, perhaps it springs from the narrative will of an author, or it is only reality that possesses it and grants it, sparingly, only to those with the patience and insight to recognise it. The effort to bring thoughts into focus, becomes an impossibility to see clearly, and the images themselves then lose definition, certainty, chasing each other in a perpetual beautiful out-of-focus that turns each shot into an impressionist painting or a landscape constructed by the Italian "macchiaioli", not coincidentally two pictorial currents that opposed an institutional idea of art. Perhaps Hong, in his long journey of liberation from the superfluous, of questioning the deeper meaning of cinema arrives at a point where it is no longer enough for him to simplify shots, but goes so far as to question even the need for a shot that shows, while perhaps suggesting a gaze might be more than enough.

In Water suggests Picasso knocking off a sketch on a piece of paper in a matter of seconds.” writes Chuck Bowen (Slant, Feb 26, 2023) and indeed this film, that runs a little more than an hour, is infinitely bigger in his meaning and value.

Teresa Cavina

IN WATER (2023)

(2023)

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About the Film

Director

Hong Sangsoo

IN WATER(2023)

(2023)

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