The Oklahoma City University Film Institute series will continue at 2 p.m. Oct. 16 with Zhang Yimou’s “Coming Home.” This year’s series is based on the theme “On Being Mortal.”
All films in the series are screened free to the public in the Kerr McGee Auditorium of Meinders School of Business at N.W. 27th Street and McKinley Avenue.
The series is supported in part by the Thatcher Hoffman Smith Endowment Fund and endowments through OCU and the Oklahoma City Community Foundation.
In “Coming Home,” Zhang creates a moving story set after China’s Cultural Revolution. Having been released from a labor camp where he was sent as a political prisoner, Lu returns home years later searching for his beloved wife, played by Zhang’s often-cast actress and muse Gong Li. The husband and wife struggle to recognize each other after great trauma.
The New York Times stated “Zhang’s keen and universal view of human nature raises his work far above its own visual beauty and into the realm of timeless storytelling.”
The theme of this year’s season is based on Atul Gawande’s recent book “Being Mortal.” Winn, director of the series, said the films were selected to show “how we, as individuals and a culture, confront, avoid and deal with finitude.” Topics covered include how societies deal with people who are aging, the importance of life and how it is lived with need for a healthy and ethical awareness in knowing we all ultimately die.
A discussion session follows each film screening for those who wish to participate. Other dates and films in the series are:
* Oct. 30, Naji Abu Nowar’s “Theeb”
* Jan. 22, Francois Truffaut’s “The Last Metro”
* Feb. 5, Lasse Hallstrom’s “My Life as a Dog”
* Feb. 19, Asghar Farhadi’s “Fireworks Wednesday”
* March 5, Ciro Guerra’s “Embrace of the Serpent”
For more information about the series, call 405-208-5707 or visit okcufilmlit.org.
