Grim reality from South Korea and Ukraine

The two films in the official competition selection at the Cannes Film Festival today are seriously serious. One is from Ukraine, the other from South Korea.

DR

Wednesday at the Cannes Film Festival began with a teenage girl’s body floating face down in a river.

Poetry, directed by Lee Chang-dong, is a film about a grandmother’s awakening to her own life through poetry. And, as the title suggests, there is something poetic about the film which is conveyed with aplomb by one of South Korea’s foremost actresses, Yun Jung-hee.

And it’s thanks to that poetry that the mija, the granny, manages to cope with so much bad news. Not only does she learn that she has Alzheimer’s when she most needs to remember words to help her write poetry, she also learns that the grandson who lives with her has been involved in raping a young girl who then committed suicide.

This is South Korea’s second film in the official, competition line-up. The first one to screen was Im Sang-soo’s The Housemaid.

The other film of the day in competition, is a first-time feature film called My Joy. It’s from Ukraine and it’s by Sergei Loznitsa.

A lorry driver, who appears amenable to others, gets diverted and finds himself in the blindingly snowy back-of-beyond with sad, rustic, and sometimes brutal people. Those wearing police and army uniforms are consistently corrupt and coldly violent.

And the former truck driver who had been such a friendly chap, turns into a blind killer himself.

As white as it looks on the surface of the screen, the image becomes very dingy and desperate when you dig deeper.