Burning (Beoning)

Chang-dong Lee

Chang-dong Lee’s film runs very slowly until its major and unpredictable climax, presenting the imagery with such distance and delicacy that it could be related to literature rather than film. Burning that is based on Haruki Murakami’s short story communicates the sense of the characters and the world characteristic to Murakami so well that a viewer who has not read about the connection between Lee and Murakami is noticing it in the film anyway. Although the movie also features some lines of action that does not seem to go anywhere, these scenes seem to be essential after all to keep the pace of the movie low and the mystery related to the characters high. With all this, Burning is not just a bunch of moving pictures, but provides a visually and emotionally comprehensive solution. 4/5

The next screening of Burning is on December 1 at 8.30 p.m. at Coca-Cola Plaza.

The Favourite

Yorgos Lanthimos

This is an English royal drama with good actors, rhythm and visualization, and is probably the director’s most audience-friendly work compared to his previous films. The Favourite creates a controversial, albeit believable image of aristocracy, in which “high” is brought “low”. With a large number of fish-eye frames, the greatness of power is drawn into a shameful dirt with a great furor and joy. The viewer is reminded that actually, all the people belong there regardless of their position. Although it’s true that a ruler is a ruler first and foremost if one is treated as a ruler, on the other hand, Lanthimos shows that a ruler can be a ruler even if one is not treated as such. Despite the shortages and obedience of a ruler in case of a manipulative behavior of the others, he is still a ruler. The ruler of Lanthimos does not disappear anywhere and does not lose power even for a moment, but if someone wins his support, that person can rule oneself, the country and the ruler himself. The latter is the most incriminating in the case of the The Favourite. 5/5

The next screening of The Favourite is on December 1 at 4.30 p.n. at Solaris Apollo Cinema.

Donbass

Sergei Loznitsa

This is a movie that repeatedly says two things in different ways. First, in the event of war, any kind of everyday life is taken over by the war, dividing people into allies and enemies, but making the most arbitrary things a matter of life and death. At the same time, it is inevitable that the war itself becomes something trivial, banal and even ridiculous. Second, to describe the modern hybrid war, Loznitsa’s quasi-documentary, which is an uncanny hybrid of documentary and comedy, is particularly well suited. Unfortunately, these two aspects are not very strongly linked to each other, and that’s why Donbass strays from its course. 2/5

The next screening of Donbass is on December 2 at 6.45 p.m. at Solaris Apollo Cinema.