Film Screening: Wood and Water (Jonas Bak, 2021)

Film at AUP is delighted to present a special film screening of Wood and Water in Monttessuy Center for the Arts, for what will be the film's première screening in Paris. Director Jonas Bak and producer Charlotte Lelong will be in attendance for a Q&A session. Please note: the event will begin with a wine reception at 18h15. The film screening will begin prompty at 18h45.

About the Film
Anke has just retired from her church job in a small town in the Black Forest. She looks forward to reuniting with her children over the summer holidays by the Baltic Sea, at a place she lived her best years. But her son Max, who lives in Hong Kong, cancels at short notice because the pro-democracy protests in the city have brought life there to a standstill. The void of retirement prompts Anke to take up one last adventure. On a whim, she travels to Hong Kong to check in on Max and cautiously navigates through a city in turmoil. The people Anke encounters in this mysterious new world animate her spirit: she begins to strip down her inner walls and contemplates a new chapter of her life.

An "elegant feature debut about modern alienation [and] self-discovery... the recognition of a common struggle to adapt and find peace in the face of life’s endless upheavals." - Beatrice Loayza, The New York Times, Critics' Pick

"A calm exploration of the way the space taken by maternal love can be redefined, and an invitation to the voyage rich in delicate propositions on matters such as distance, human contact and spirituality, studied from the most simple scale. An endearing film at the border between documentary and fiction, and one which hides under its humble appearances a very sharp sense for atmosphere." - Fabien Lemercier, Cineuropa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-1km5xtvRQ

About the Director
Born in Konstanz in 1985 and now based in Fischerbach, near Freiburg, Jonas Bak studied film directing at Edinburgh College of Art before moving to London in 2015 and then Hong Kong in 2018 to work as a freelance film director and director of photography. He wrote and directed two short films, WANDERDRACHEN (2016) and ONE AND MANY (2017), both of which were screened at international film festivals including Molodist, Curtacinema Rio de Janeiro and Pacific Meridian. WOOD AND WATER (2021) is his first feature film and premiered at the 71st Berlinale.

About the Producer
Charlotte Lelong holds a bachelor in law and international relations from Edinburgh University, where she also headed the Edinburgh Movie Production Society. In 2020 she founded the film production company Trance Films, based in France. She produced Jonas' short films and feature film WOOD AND WATER which screened at a number of international film festivals and was distributed in the US, Canada and worldwide on VOD. She is developing Jonas' second feature film, SHE MAKES AND UNMAKES as well as three other projects.