Lee Chang-dong enters Venice Golden Lion race with an exploration of desire across class lines

After eight years away from the screen, Lee Chang-dong has returned to the Venice Film Festival with “Possible Love,” a nearly three-hour film that places class, dignity and desire at the center of the Golden Lion race. The South Korean director's first feature since “Burning” in 2018 has been warmly received at its premiere.

The film brings together two very different couples. One consists of unionized workers affected by cuts and by technologies that threaten to replace them. The other is made up of an aspiring documentary filmmaker and her wealthy husband, who are particularly interested in filming their country's labor protests and social demands.

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Over these years I have really felt how drastically our lives have been transformed and changed. COVID made me think that the relationship between human beings was changing profoundly, and that raised a question: Can cinema continue to connect people?

The couples grow closer through the camera. The workers are flattered to find themselves listened to by someone they consider important, while the filmmakers' real aim is closer to capturing their hardship and misery. The Netflix production becomes an expansive study of class differences and the desire to belong, alongside a sharp criticism of a snobbery that “vampirizes” poor people's realities.

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How can we maintain our sense of identity and, at the same time, discover who we are?

The film includes an in-memory reference to Krzysztof Kieślowski's “Decalogue 10,” titled “Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Goods.” Each couple wants something from the other, even though what they seek is effectively unattainable.

Lee said social change and the disruption caused by COVID-19 led him to question whether cinema could still connect people. He also identified closely with the documentary filmmaker played by Cho Yeo-jeong, a character who repeatedly questions her attitude toward the people she is filming and her relationship with them. “How can we maintain our sense of identity and, at the same time, discover who we are?” Lee asked.

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It is a character who constantly asks what her attitude really is, what she feels toward these people and what the relationship is between her and those she is portraying. I think this character comes closest to my own identity as a filmmaker.