Lee Isaac Chung may have sprung to global film with his semi-autobiographical Minari, which saw star Youn Yuh-jung pick up a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, but he made this, his first feature, way back in 2007.
Filmed on location in Rwanda and the first feature to be shot in the Kinyarwanda language, it considers the impact of the country's genocide via the rearview mirror, through the friendship of Ngabo (Jeff Rutagengwa) - the shortened name form of the film's title - and Sangwa (Eric Ndorunkundiye). Both the history of the friends and their plans for the future are gradually revealed, with Chung and his co-writer Samuel Gray Anderson taking a slow build approach to the story - although it comes as little surprise that one is Hutu and the other Tutsi. All we know at first is that they are on "a journey", destination unspecified, but which includes a stop-off...
Filmed on location in Rwanda and the first feature to be shot in the Kinyarwanda language, it considers the impact of the country's genocide via the rearview mirror, through the friendship of Ngabo (Jeff Rutagengwa) - the shortened name form of the film's title - and Sangwa (Eric Ndorunkundiye). Both the history of the friends and their plans for the future are gradually revealed, with Chung and his co-writer Samuel Gray Anderson taking a slow build approach to the story - although it comes as little surprise that one is Hutu and the other Tutsi. All we know at first is that they are on "a journey", destination unspecified, but which includes a stop-off...
- 6/14/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Eric Ndorunkundiye And Josef "Jeff" Rutagengwa In Director Lee Isaac Chung'S Munyurangabo. Courtesy Film Movement. For Lee Isaac Chung, filmmaking is linked to tackling challenges and obstacles above and beyond those inherent to the cinematic process. The son of Korean immigrants, Chung was born in Denver in 1978 and grew up on a farm in rural Arkansas. He attended Yale and was studying biology, on track to become a doctor, when he discovered arthouse movies. Rather than continue on his path to a medical career, Chung took a filmmaking class given by Michael Roemer and went on to earn an Mfa in film from the University of Utah in 2004. A classmate at Utah, Yohei Kawamata, became the star of Chung's first two shorts, Highway (2004) and Sex...
- 6/10/2009
- by Nick Dawson
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
With Cannes now wrapped up, this week finds everyone on the move as a trio of Indian workers go to Michigan, Sam Raimi goes home and Karl Fredricksen and his yappy companion go, well, up.
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"Departures"
Best known as the unknown film that won the Best Foreign Language Oscar, Japanese director Yojiro Takita's tonally eccentric story of guilt and self-realization finally gets a chance to prove its bonafides. Crushed by the dismantling of his Tokyo-based orchestra, newly unemployed cellist Daigo Kobyashi (Masahiro Motoki) returns to his sleepy hometown to work performing burial rituals at a funeral home, a job that slowly transitions from a necessity to a duty to a calling. In Japanese with subtitles.
Opens in limited release.
"Drag Me To Hell"
The first film from Ghost House Pictures to actually be directed by the boss,...
Download this in audio form (MP3: 07:59 minutes, 11 Mb) Subscribe to the In Theaters podcast: [Xml] [iTunes]
"Departures"
Best known as the unknown film that won the Best Foreign Language Oscar, Japanese director Yojiro Takita's tonally eccentric story of guilt and self-realization finally gets a chance to prove its bonafides. Crushed by the dismantling of his Tokyo-based orchestra, newly unemployed cellist Daigo Kobyashi (Masahiro Motoki) returns to his sleepy hometown to work performing burial rituals at a funeral home, a job that slowly transitions from a necessity to a duty to a calling. In Japanese with subtitles.
Opens in limited release.
"Drag Me To Hell"
The first film from Ghost House Pictures to actually be directed by the boss,...
- 5/25/2009
- by Neil Pedley
- ifc.com
We're all for getting out in the summertime, but there might not be anything more refreshing than cooling off in a movie theater... or seeing a movie in the comfort of your air-conditioned home on demand, on DVD, or online... or better yet catching a classic on the big screen at a nearby repertory theater. With literally hundreds of films to choose from this summer, we humbly present this guide to the season's most exciting offerings.
May 1
"Eldorado"
The Cast: Bouli Lanners, Fabrice Adde, Philippe Nahon, Didier Toupy, Franise Chichy
Director: Bouli Lanners
Fest Cred: Cannes, Warsaw, Glasgow, Palm Springs,
The Gist: When Elie (Adde), a hapless young thief attempts to rob Yvan (Lanners), a 40-year-old car dealer, the two form a unlikely friendship that leads to a road trip across Belgium in this slight comedy that won the Best European Film at the Director's Fortnight at Cannes last year.
May 1
"Eldorado"
The Cast: Bouli Lanners, Fabrice Adde, Philippe Nahon, Didier Toupy, Franise Chichy
Director: Bouli Lanners
Fest Cred: Cannes, Warsaw, Glasgow, Palm Springs,
The Gist: When Elie (Adde), a hapless young thief attempts to rob Yvan (Lanners), a 40-year-old car dealer, the two form a unlikely friendship that leads to a road trip across Belgium in this slight comedy that won the Best European Film at the Director's Fortnight at Cannes last year.
- 5/6/2009
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
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