Lee Chang-dong in Venice: “Workers Are Being Belittled More and More”

Lee Chang-dong’s new film begins with a question about how honestly a storyteller can portray people and their pain, but it leads to a broader concern: what does it mean to make films now?

Speaking at the Venice Film Festival, the South Korean director said his work is closely tied to the lives of workers who see their labor increasingly diminished. “I think our task is deeply connected to the life of every worker living in this era and seeing their work increasingly belittled,” he said.

Possible Love is in competition at Venice and marks Lee’s return to cinema eight years after Burning. The film has also been selected to represent South Korea in the race for the Academy Award for best international feature. It forms part of an international project inspired by Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Decalogue, although Lee develops an entirely independent story from the commandment “You shall not covet.”

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I think our task is deeply connected to the life of every worker living in this era and seeing their work increasingly belittled.

At the center are two married couples. Mi-ok, played by Jeon Do-yeon, is the lively, brilliant wife of Ho-seok, played by Sul Kyung-gu. He is a factory worker who unsuccessfully tried to save his job with fellow workers through an indefinite strike, which police ended by beating him severely. The other couple consists of Ye-ji, a documentarian making a film about laid-off workers, and her husband Sang-woo, a wealthy and highly competitive businessman who nevertheless supports her work.

The apparent friendship and intimacy that develops among the four conceal less transparent dynamics. Lee said the years since Burning, including the Covid period when people could no longer go to the cinema, made him question whether cinema could still unite and connect people. “I believe Possible Love is the result of these questions we asked ourselves about cinema and the fundamental changes taking place in human relationships,” he said.

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I believe Possible Love is the result of these questions we asked ourselves about cinema and the fundamental changes taking place in human relationships.