Film screening of What Does That Nature Say to You (2025)

Another year, another film by director Hong Sang-soo. The prolific South Korean filmmaker has been a regular at the international festival circuit for many years, and now he is also a regular in Bergen. In recent years, we’ve presented both retrospectives and domestic theatrical premiers of his work. We’re proud to once more return to his peculiar formal rhythm—with all the pans, zooms, and perfectly imperfect images that contains—as well as his consistently compelling portraits of graceless artists, almost always bumbling men.

What Does That Nature Say to You can be easily summarized as a South Korean, Meet the Fockers. A young poet drives his girlfriend to her parent’s house, but before the poet can leave, her father greets the couple and a whole day ensues. It is filled with delicious dinners (plural), regular consumption of (too much) alcohol, and of course both emotional breakthroughs and breakdowns. It is a comedy that touches on the embarrassment of pretension, but also the grace of love.