Left to fend for herself when she arrives in Hong Kong with protests in full swing, a German woman makes a series of chance encounters
Jonas Bak’s short debut feature, about a retired German mother who follows her son to Hong Kong, lingers at the checkpoint between fiction and documentary. Powerfully composed and comprised largely of characters monologuing over illustrative shots, it has the contemplative authority of non-fiction. But it is, nonetheless, still fiction, one that sets its slender story against a backdrop of fleeting time at first intimately evoked but which grows into something epic and almost sublime.
The widowed mother, pixie-cutted and subdued, takes family members, including her daughter (Theresa Bak), to her old house on the Baltic sea. There, the past is as visible as the marine horizon, but unreachable; one absentee is her son, Max, who has been working in Hong Kong. Newly retired from her job in a church,...
Jonas Bak’s short debut feature, about a retired German mother who follows her son to Hong Kong, lingers at the checkpoint between fiction and documentary. Powerfully composed and comprised largely of characters monologuing over illustrative shots, it has the contemplative authority of non-fiction. But it is, nonetheless, still fiction, one that sets its slender story against a backdrop of fleeting time at first intimately evoked but which grows into something epic and almost sublime.
The widowed mother, pixie-cutted and subdued, takes family members, including her daughter (Theresa Bak), to her old house on the Baltic sea. There, the past is as visible as the marine horizon, but unreachable; one absentee is her son, Max, who has been working in Hong Kong. Newly retired from her job in a church,...
- 9/26/2022
- by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
One of the most serene, tranquil tales of the last few years is German director Jonas Bak’s Wood and Water, a 16mm-shot feature that picked up an award upon its Berlinale premiere and stopped by Nd/Nf and BFI London, among other fests. With KimStim setting an NYC premiere at MoMA on March 24, an LA and national release to follow, we’re pleased to debut the trailer.
Led by Bak’s own mother, Anke Bak, the film follows her newly retired character who seeks to reconnect with her son Max, who lives in Hong Kong. Heading from Germany to this region of China, she embarks on a solo journey of soul-searching and connection.
As Glenn Heath Jr said in his Nd/Nf review, “Germany’s mountainous Black Forest region and Hong Kong Island couldn’t be more dissimilar in terms of terrain. Yet, Jonas Bak’s debut film Wood...
Led by Bak’s own mother, Anke Bak, the film follows her newly retired character who seeks to reconnect with her son Max, who lives in Hong Kong. Heading from Germany to this region of China, she embarks on a solo journey of soul-searching and connection.
As Glenn Heath Jr said in his Nd/Nf review, “Germany’s mountainous Black Forest region and Hong Kong Island couldn’t be more dissimilar in terms of terrain. Yet, Jonas Bak’s debut film Wood...
- 3/2/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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