Sleepless Night (Jam mot deuneun bam)
Director: Jang Kun-jae
2012 / South Korea / 65 minutes
Cast: Kim Soo-hyun, Kim Joo-ryeong
Winner, Grand Prize and Audience Award, Jeonju International Film Festival
After his debut, Eighteen, which evoked youthful impulses with electrifying authenticity, Jang Kun-jae’s follow-up, Sleepless Night, initially seems as staid and uneventful as the marriage of the thirtysomethings he depicts. Yet Night’s unassuming brilliance lies in the lyricism of love itself, which it tenderly infuses into every precisely framed and edited shot of the most quotidian activities.
The picture imperceptibly penetrates the cozy neighbourhood of factory employee Hyun-soo (Kim Soo-hyun) and his yoga-instructor wife Joon-hee (Kim Joo-ryeong), building pleasurable momentum from their ups and downs (a birthday party, work hassles, speculation about having babies) that are universal yet deeply personal to the protagonists. Daydreams and nightmares suggest subconscious anxieties, revealing a rippling emotional current beneath the characters’ daily pleasantries. The actors wear their roles like a second skin. Excerpts from Bach’s Goldberg Variations imbue intimate moments with a serene, contemplative air.
Maggie Lee, Variety
Vanishing Point
Director: Abhijit Mazumdar
2012 / India / 40 minutes
Cast: Aseem Hattangadi, Anand Tiwari
Two friends, Aurko and Sachin, are looking for locations for a short film that they are planning to make. Most importantly, a specific kind of village bus stop. The journey derails...
