Past Lives: dir Celine Song (2023)

Celine Song’s first feature has been nominated in two of this year’s Oscar categories (Best Motion Picture category and Best Original Screenplay – but criminally not Best Director). It’s the story of a modern romance; Na Young’s family emigrated from Seoul to Canada when she was 12, she lost touch with her childhood sweetheart Hae Sung, and a decade later they find each other again …

Past Lives is a deeply romantic love story that also embraces destiny, nostalgia and the immigrant experience. The result is a masterclass in how you have to make a story specific for it to be universal. It’s also (almost incidentally) a portrait of a very specific form of masculinity, one that’s about decency, selflessness, understanding and fear – not something you see very often, and perhaps a portrait that could only have been realised by a woman.

“A divine cinematic experience; this is what we go to the movies for” says Cinema Space, which has programmed this brilliantly realised film for us at no charge.

Very highly recommended.