Song of love

The maker of Past Lives talks about how her feature debut became the year's most acclaimed film.

- RUSSELL BAILLIE

It seems oddly apt to be talking to Celine Song about her movie Past Lives via Zoom in New York.

Yes, she will be presenting her directorial debut in person as a guest of the Whānau Marama: New Zealand International Film Festival. But some of the most affecting scenes in her quietly heart-aching love story, which traverses continents, decades, and the Korean concept of inyeon from which the film gets its title, are conversations between two people on Skype.

On one side of the calls is Canadian-Korean New Yorker Na Young/Nora (Greta Lee). On the other is her one-time sweetheart from her childhood in Seoul, Hae Sung (Teo Yoo). They haven't seen each other nor been in touch since  Nora's family crossed the Pacific 12 years earlier and she Anglicised her name.