1-World Festival of Foreign Films
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"The River"
1997
Directed by Tsai Ming-liang

With subtle brilliance, Tsai Ming-liang portrays a hopelessly fractured family dynamic in this film rich with detail and quiet power. A young man begins experiencing severe neck pain after floating in the polluted Tanshui River. Meanwhile the family's apartment is flooded as the mother has an affair and the father cruises gay saunas - a habit which leads to a most disturbing encounter. "...strange and shocking...a masterpiece" (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader). Mandarin with English subtitles. Taiwan.  115 minutes.