Time Between Dog and Wolf

VANCOUVER PREMIERE ► Jeon’s semi-autobiographical drama, a melancholic tale of missing people and a missing sense of place and purpose, is titled after a French phrase — entre chien et loup — denoting a darkness so deep one can’t tale whether the creature in front of one’s face is a dog or a wolf. Wandering this metaphorical darkness is Kim, a filmmaker with funding woes who returns to his hometown, near the North Korean border, after a 25-year absence. In search of a family member missing since the Korean War, Kim encounters a young woman looking for her own long-lost relative. An intense and mysterious attraction develops between these two wanderers. “The film’s rigorous style, slow rhythm, long silences and cold atmosphere work to obtain moments of pure lyricism and offer a reflection on cinema, love, the division of the country, memory and the deepest wounds of each human being” (Frankfurt I.F.F.). “Magnificent . . . A discovery . . . [It] manages to invent with a precision and stupefying liberty its own vocabulary of rhythms and luminous compositions. If the narrative is haunted by an implacable melancholy, the mise-en-scène is inhabited, little-by-little, by the secret joy of making cinema” (Jean-Michel Frodon, Cahiers du cinéma). Colour, 35mm, in Korean with English subtitles. 110 mins.