Columbus
How on earth do you create a gripping romance about architecture?
The answer lies in COLUMBUS, kogonada’s debut feature, which explores so much more than just concrete and glass. The film follows the blossoming friendship between Casey, who feels trapped in her hometown, and Jin, stranded there by his father’s illness. Their backdrop is Columbus, Indiana: a modernist oasis that serves as an open-air museum for tourists, but feels like a place of stagnation for those who live there.
kogonada’s film feels like the artful cousin to Richard Linklater’s BEFORE trilogy. Much like Linklater’s work, it features a pair wandering through a city, using their surroundings as the catalyst for deeper conversation. Amidst the iconic monuments, the focus shifts from architectural lines to an exploration of attention itself. Is there truly a crisis of attention, or is interest simply fading in the things that actually matter?
COLUMBUS isn’t just about a city, its inhabitants, or its buildings; it is about the art of looking—at our environment and at each other.
Showtimes
This film screening is inspired by the new non-fiction book 'Liever lui dan moe' by film programmer Johannes De Breuker. Through filmmakers such as Sofia Coppola, Richard Linklater and Kogonada, he shows how we can reclaim our attention by embracing precisely what the digital world has taken from us: boredom. The book is available from our webshop.
