By The Stream (2024)

2024 | 111min | PG 13 – “Smoking Scene” Languages: Korean Subtitles: English Director: Hong Sangsoo Cast: KIM Min-hee, KWON Hae-hyo, CHO Yun-hee, HA Seong-guk, KANG So-yi, Park Han-bit-na-ra, PARK Yoon-soo Synopsis: A women’s university has a skit festival. A lecturer named Jeonim asks her uncle to direct a skit put on by her department. Each day, Jeonim goes to a stream by the school to sketch and to grasp the patterns from the stream for her artworks. Her uncle is an actor- director who has not been able to work for several years after being placed on a blacklist. He decides to direct the skit because of his memories directing a skit at this same university as a first-year student, 40 years earlier. A somewhat scandalous incident arises among the students acting in the skit, and Jeonim and her uncle end up getting involved. Meanwhile, the uncle becomes close to a textiles professor, the moon grows bigger in the sky each night, and every morning Jeonim continues to sketch by the stream. Award: 77th Locarno Film Festival (2024) – Leopard for Best Performance (KIM Min-hee)