[PRESS RELEASE] Oscar winner Bong Joon-ho at the Florence Korea Film Fest

Eighth day at the La Compagnia cinema: the masterclass is sold out but can be followed online on MyMovies platform

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Double appointment for the Oscar award in Florence: at 3 pm masterclass and at 8 pm greeting at audience before the screening of his "Mother - 2009" in a black and white version

The director will receive an award from the President of Tuscany Region (Regione Toscana) Eugenio Giani, the Regional Council from President Antonio Mazzeo and Honorary Citizenship of the City of Florence (Firenze) by Mayor Dario Nardella

Oscar winner Bong Joon-ho for the film Parasite is the special guest of the 21st Florence Korea Film Fest: the director will meet the festival audience on Thursday 6 April, at 3 pm, at the La Compagnia cinema in Florence (via Cavour 50r) in a masterclass entitled "Geometries of the gaze" and at 8 pm to present the 2009 film "Mother - 2009", in an original black and white version. The masterclass is sold out but can be followed online on the MyMovies and Più Compagnia platforms by purchasing the subscription for 9.90 euros.

To welcome in Tuscany The welcome in Tuscany will be given by the President of the Tuscany Region Eugenio Giani donating the Pegasus symbol of the Tuscany Region (Regione Toscana) and by the Mayor of Florence (Firenze) Dario Nardella the parchment of honorary citizenship of the City of Florence, by Antonio Mazzeo, president of the Regional Council who will deliver, before the masterclass, an acknowledgment on behalf of the entire legislative assembly, which sponsored the Florence Korea Film Fest. "For his artistic production and for having created a bridge, thanks to the cinema, between Italy and Korea, as in the unforgettable scene of Parasite with the song by Gianni Morandi in the background".

With seven feature films, a Palme d'Or and four Academy Awards, Bong Joon-ho is one of the most famous and acclaimed masters of contemporary Korean cinema. After the retrospective dedicated in 2011, the director returns to Florence for a masterclass that traces his career, from the beginning to the present day. The meeting is curated by the critics Marco Luceri, Caterina Liverani and Luigi Nepi, and will address the main turning points of his idea of cinema: the reflection on the fractures that cross Korean society from individuals to the different social classes (as in "Barking Dog Never Bite", "Mother - 2009", "Memories of Murder" and "Parasite") and on the announced ecological disaster (as in "Snowpiercer" and "Okja") are always accompanied by a style that combines the originality of an auteur gaze with a taste for spectacular cinema with a strong popular connotation (such as "The Host"). A cinema of heroes who fight "against everything and everyone", on the chessboard of a world with uncontrollable trajectories.

This will be followed by "Mother - 2009" at 8 pm, for many the true masterpiece of the Korean director, a mature film that takes on the thriller genre, where Bong once again puts the spotlight on the story of two outcasts (mother and son) who live on the edge of the world, but who precisely because of this have the strength to bend events and re-establish their own truth, which will be much more shocking than the "official" one.

Two other screenings are also scheduled for the day: at 5.30 pm, space for "My Mother, the Mermaid" by Park Heung-sik, as a tribute to this year's festival guest, actor Park Hae-il: a story simple, which unfolds with delicacy and warmth, respectfully treating the themes of the present and at the same time looking with a kind of tenderness and reference to the patriarchal Korea of the past. Finally, at 10.30 pm, Kim Hong-seon's "Project Wolf Hunting" is in the room: during their transport by ship to be repatriated, from the Philippines to South Korea, a group of criminals unites to organize an escape attempt . However, they don't know that something even more dangerous than them is hiding on board the same ship they are traveling on.

Information: Florence Korea Film Fest; via San Domenico, 101 (Fi); Tel: 055 5048516; info@koreafilmfest.com; www.koreafilmfest.com.