“The Daughters of Fire” and “In Water” have contrasting styles and content

A film program of “Fire + Water” delivers contrasting elements and styles. First, in an entrancing eight-and-a-half minutes, Portuguese director Pedro Costa’s “The Daughters of Fire” submits the song of three sisters separated by the eruption of Pico do Fogo, a volcano on a small Cape Verde island, Sotavento group, from November 2014 to February 2015.

The devastating volcanic impact included destruction of two villages and displacement of over 1000 people. Costa addresses this indirectly as the sisters, in a triptych composition that emphasizes their separation, sing and speak their joint lament before images of Fogo and island inhabitants appear in silence. The sisters sing with melancholy timbre, “What a terrible day. I’m tired . . . There will come a time when we’ll know why we suffer and the mystery will end.” Imagining the future, they add, “We’ll be gone forever . . . they will forget our faces . . . our sufferings will be joys for the people to come.” The haunting voices express the deep anguish of the present and the future.

In stark contrast, South Korean writer/director Hong Sang-soo’s ‘In Water’ creates distress for viewers since, except for the initial shot, it appears deliberately out of focus throughout its hour. As usual, Hong limits his narrative to three people who reveal their personalities during intermittent dialogue. This time, with a familiar Hong character, a distressed one-time actor, now aspiring to direct, Seoung-mo, spends time with two friends, actress Nam-hee and pal Sang-gug, on Jeju Island, ironically, a Korean holiday site.

Struggling to invent a story, Seoung-mo accidentally finds a woman collecting trash on the rocky beach and decides to film Nam-hee doing exactly that, including word-for-word his dialogue exchange with the local resident, after which he’ll follow his impulse to walk into the ocean. I’m a fan of Hong’s revelations that come through casual conversation, but he’s lost me this time with a self-conscious indulgence smacking of arrogance. Thematically, I applaud his courage, but the headache-inducing experience interferes with the symbolic message, that is, these ‘friends’ fail to see each other clearly. In the "Fire + Water" program, first is “The Daughters of Fire,” in Portuguese. “In Water” is in Korean. Both have English subtitles and screen at Webster University’s Winifred Moore auditorium Friday, January 5, through Sunday, January 7, at 7:00 each of those evenings. For more information, you may visit the film series website.