In Jonas Bak’s exquisitely crafted first function, “Wooden and Water,” a widowed German mother’s retirement from her church job and emotions of loneliness spur a visit to go to a faraway son in Hong Kong, which additionally turns into a method for her new self to reckon recollections and loss with an unsure future.
The delineated settings, captured with the intimate grain of 16 mm, couldn’t be extra unalike in power: the verdant serenity of a Black Forest village and the neon-and-steel bustle of a city-state within the grip of historic protests. Bak visually connects these two atmospheres in a patiently virtuosic lengthy take pointed upward from a transferring automobile as fleeting treetops on the sting of the body segue into the darkness and pulsating fluorescence of a tunnel, after which we emerge into what looks like a flower mattress of high-rises. The collapsed distance is disorienting but in addition unusually wondrous.
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Bak forged his personal mom, Anke Bak, as his touring protagonist, and she or he’s a singularly genuine presence, whether or not alone along with her ideas searching a window or participating with strangers in an unfamiliar metropolis: a younger roaming Australian, a useful doorman, a fortune teller’s translating pal. The son isn’t round, save the one behind the digital camera, a curious and affecting mix of narratively externalized guilt and filmmaking devotion that solely deepens as the truth of her scenario sinks in.
Juxtaposing nature’s comforting placidity and an city mélange by which freedom is all the time in flux, “Wooden and Water” breathes with unforced majesty about what’s unhappy and exquisite in moments of nice change — story, temper and near-documentary-like commentary are in a beautiful concord right here. Within the abiding stillness of its photographs and pacing is a way of life because it’s lived and, hopefully, appreciated. It makes for a outstanding debut function in that respect, since this might simply be a extra veteran artist’s summing up about time spent trying to find strands of house in locations outdated and new.
'Wooden and Water'
In German, English and Cantonese with English subtitles
Not rated
Working time: 1 hour, 19 minutes
Enjoying: Begins April 15, Lumiere Music Corridor, Beverly Hills
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