30. Film Festival della Lessinia
Bosco Chiesanuova (Italia)
23 August - 1 September 2024

Above a lake immersed in nature and surrounded by mountains, floats a Buddhist temple, the hermetic home of an elderly monk and his very young disciple. The metaphoric changing of the seasons marks the stages of the lives of the protagonists. The young novice grows up learning about nature and from his maestro the laws of life, until in adolescence he meets a young girl sent to the temple for a spiritual cure who stimulates in him a new desire that leads him to escape from the hermitage. Destiny, however, seems to tie him to the old teacher. He returns to the floating temple as an adult, seeking refuge after having committed a terrible crime, a return destined to become the umpteenth lesson and occasion for repentance, through a difficult Buddhist ritual imposed by the maestro. This is a poetic film, which the director Kim Ki-duk dedicates to the joys and suffering that characterize the life of every man, with his unique cinematic language in which the image prevails above all else, including the dialogue.  

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  Kim Ki-duk

  Kim Ki-duk was one of the greats of contemporary South Korean cinema. Born in a mountain village in South Korea in a humble family, he moved to Seoul at age nine. After doing various jobs, he joined the marine corps, then abandoned it to devote himself to his youthful passion, painting. In 1990, using his savings, he left for France, where he became a street artist. On returning to Korea he won a competition with one of his screenplays. So began his career as a filmmaker, even without formal academic or technical training. Kim went to many festivals around the world and soon became known as a visionary poet of the image, while remaining the author of a divisive cinema. Amongst his most famous films are The Isle, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring, The Samaritan Girl (winner of the Silver Bear in Berlin), 3-Iron (special jury prize in Venice), Pietà (Golden Lion Venice ). The director died tragically in December 2020 at age 59 from complications from Covid-19.