A Conversation with God

Tsai Ming-liang / Taiwan / 2001 / Czech Premiere / 31 min.

synopsis

Word gets out that someone has awakened God, so Tsai heads to the temple with a digital camera to film it. But along the way, all he sees are bloody rituals, celebrations of the body and shamanic ceremonies until he discovers a gateway to the underworld. Subways, passageways, sewers, blowing wind, the harsh light of fluorescent lamps and emptiness. Perhaps there he'll find the voice of God, which is reminiscent of the silence of dead fish.

biography

Tsai Ming-liang (1957) is a Malaysian native who lives and works in Taiwan. Together with Ang Lee and Hou Hsiao-hsien, he is a leading representative of the Taiwanese New Wave. His work has features of slow cinema, conceptual art and performance art and deals with themes of loneliness, time and memory. His second feature, Vive L'Amour (1994), won the Golden Lion at Venice. The River (1997) won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale, and The Wayward Cloud (2005) competed there.