Anke retires from her job at the church in a small town in the Black Forest. She looks forward to reuniting with her children over the summer holidays by the Baltic Sea, at a place where they used to live as a young family, and where she lived her best years. At the last minute, her son Max is unable to join them because of the pro-democracy protests that are bringing Hong Kong, where he lives, to a standstill. She has been out of touch with him for many years and after an otherwise uneventful summer and facing the void of retirement, she decides to visit him. A mother wants to check in on her children every now and then, but Hong Kong is also her adventure. She takes up residence in his flat while Max is away on a business trip and cautiously begins to navigate this mysterious new world. Through conversations with strangers, she gradually settles in. A young woman who is sad to leave Hong Kong, Max’s doorman, a psychiatrist, a fortune teller and a social activist. These encounters and her experience of the city help her to break down the inner walls she constructed years ago and make way for a new chapter in her life.
Trailer
Cast
ANKE BAK
RICKY YEUNG
ALEXANDRA BATTEN
PATRICK LO
THERESA BAK
SUSANNE JOHNSSEN
PATRICK SHUM
LENA ACKERMANN
EDWARD CHAN
CHRISTEL JOHNSSEN
AMY ACEITUNA
JONAS BAK
WOLFGANG ACKERMANN
RACHEL CHAN
HARRY HA
TONY POON
TAI CHI CHAN C FU GROUP
Screenwriter, Director, Editor
JONAS BAK
Producer
CHARLOTTE LELONG
Co-Producers
ULLA LEHMANN, ANDREA ROGGON
Cinematographer
ALEX GRIGORAS
Sound
CHRIS GAYNE, JEREMIE VERNEREY, ALBERT HUNG KIN KONG, ISAAC BERTULIS
Camera Assistant
THOMAS ROWE
Assistant Director
ADRIANA PRAXMARER
Gaffer
HSIEN YU NIU
Music
“New Space Music” written and performed by BRIAN ENO
Courtesy of All Saints Records, © Universal Music Publishing Ltd on behalf of Opal Music
Supervising Sound Designer & Re-Recording Mixer
MARIAN MENTRUP
Sound Designer & Dialogue Editor
MICHELE BRAGA
Sound Designer
MICHAL KRAJCZOK
Foley Recordist
SERGEY IVANOV
Cinema Re-recording Mixer
JONATHAN SCHORR
Line Producers
HEYNA WONG, ALBERTO GEROSA, LORIEN STOTZEL
Colour Grading
ALEX GRIGORAS
Visual Effects
LUKAS GEGEVICIUS
Hair & Make-Up
LENA ACKERMANN, AMREI PORTELLA
Grip
MANUEL GRIESBAUM
Fixer
TIGER KAO
Catering
NATHALIE PORTELLA, AMY ACEITUNA
Driver
KK WONG
Editing Consultant
EMRE CAGLAYAN
Artwork Design
CHARLOTTE LOUIS, THOMAS LELONG
Title Design
ROBERT GUTMANN
Artwork
MARISSA STOFFER
Photos
FRIEDHELM BAK
Shot on
KODAK FILM
Film Development & Scanning
CINELAB
Translation & Subtitling
WAY FILM GMBH
Supported By
MFG FILMFORDERUNG BADEN-WURTTEMBERG
Festival Presentation Supported By
GERMAN FILMS
With thanks to
THY LAB, SÜDWESTRUNDFUNK (SWR), MASTER CHRISTIAN ORTH (www.masterarts.training), PROTESTANT CHURCH GUTACH, FANGYING ANG, SOPHIE DUCHARME, WILLI WICHMANN, NEW NORDIC FILMS
Festivals and Awards
71st Berlinale 1-5 March / 6-20 June 2021 in Berlin, Germany
Winner of the Kompass Perspektive Award Special Mention
50th New Directors / New Films 28 April-8 May 2021 in New York, USA
21st New Horizons IFF 12-29 August 2021 in Wroclaw, Poland
15th Fünf Seen Filmfestival 18-31 August 2021, Germany
Hong Kong Arts Centre, "The Body and the City", 7 September 2021
23rd Taipei Film Festival, 23 September - 9 October 2021 in Taipei, Taiwan
Black Canvas Festival de Cine Contemporáneo, 1-10 October 2021, Mexico City
Lucca Film Festival e Europa Cinema, 1-10 October 2021, Lucca, Italy
Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente de La Plata FestiFreak, 1-17 Oct, Argentina
65th BFI London Film Festival, 6-17 October 2021, UK
50th Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, 6-17 October 2021, Canada
16th Tacoma Film Festival, 7-14 October 2021, USA
Winner of the Best Cinematography Award
45th Saõ Paulo IFF, 21 Oct-3 November 2021, Brazil
66th Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid, 23-30 October 2021, Spain
Dharamsala IFF, 4-10 November 2021, India
66th Cork IFF, 5-21 November 2021, Ireland
CPH PIX, 10-14 November 2021, Denmark
"An endearing film at the border between documentary and fiction, and one which hides under its humble appearances a very sharp sense for atmosphere"
- Fabien Lemercier, Cineuropa
"I was especially taken by Jonas Bak’s gentle character study [...] it’s in the brief encounters, the small talk and the unspoken hurt that our heroine comes to life."
- Beatrice Loayza, The New York Times
"The images, the forest—the natural world where the film begins and ends—and the thronged, high-rise-lined, neon-lit Hong Kong streets, have a richness and presence [...] this modest but beautifully shot and edited film contains some of the last images of daily life in a free Hong Kong that we’ll ever see."
- Amy Taubin, ArtForum
"The nearly abstract transition from Germany to Hong Kong, underscored by a soundtrack from Brian Eno, has to be one of the most beautifully accomplished sequences of the year so far."
- David Hudson, Criterion Daily
"But for all of the evocatively warm energy at the center of Jonas Bak’s “Wood and Water,” tension roils along the edge of each frame."
- David Ehrlich, IndieWire
"Bak’s old-school compositional rigor grounds a series of deeply pleasurable meetings with strangers, conducted in halting lingua franca English."
- Vadim Rizov, Filmmaker Magazine
"Wood and Water casts a sympathetic eye across trans-continental family bonds, growing older, and finding connection in an increasingly chaotic world. Here the inevitable, the uncontrollable, and the senseless prove common ground for kindness and discovery rather than alienation."
- Carmen Paddock, One Room with a View