Director Hong Sangsoo’s haunting and deeply personal 28th feature, “Walk Up,” opens at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center April 21.
Continuing is “Let it be Morning.”
In the film “Walk Up,” Kwon Haehyo plays Byungsoo, a film director who goes with his daughter Jeongsu (Park Miso), an aspiring interior designer, to a building owned by an old friend (Lee Hyeyoung) already established in the design field. She gives them a tour of the property, which includes a restaurant and cooking studio on the first two floors, her office in the basement, a residence on the third floor and an artist’s studio at the top. The three of them amicably chat the day away. But when his daughter leaves to get more wine, Byungsoo is left to spend time with the landlord and the other residents of her building.
With “Walk Up,” Hong returns to an interest in structure that has been a defining characteristic of his work from the beginning. And this time the structure is a literal one. As Byunsgoo makes his way up the floors of the building, Hong fills these spaces with a profusion of everyday details spanning art, love, career, religion, dietary decisions and home renovations.
“Let it be Morning” tells the story of of Sami (Alex Bakri), a Palestinian-born Israeli citizen living in Jerusalem who receives an invitation to his brother’s wedding, forcing him to return to the Arab village where he grew up. After the wedding finishes, with no explanation, Sami’s hometown is put under a military blockade lockdown by Israeli soldiers. When chaos erupts overnight among the villagers stuck behind the wall due to the blockade, Sami is cut off from the outside world and trapped in an unexpected situation. As he deals with questions about his own identity and hidden secrets are revealed, Sami watches everything he holds dear begin to fall apart.
Written and directed by award-winning Israeli filmmaker Eran Kolirin (“The Band’s Visit”) and adapted from the international best-selling novel by Palestinian author Sayed Kashua, “Let it be Morning” is a film about a state of siege, both internal and external – centered on a man who has built a wall around his heart, and how that inner wall starts coming apart when an actual, real wall goes up around his hometown.
“Let it be Morning” is showing through April 27.
Learn more about the films, including show times and ticket availability.
