Acropolis Cinema
Bringing experimental, international, and undistributed films to Los Angeles
The World Is Full of Secrets (Dir. Graham Swon, 2019)
Date: January 31, 2020
Time: 8:00pm
Location: Echo Park Film Center
Address: 1200 N Alvarado St, Los Angeles, CA. 90026
Los Angeles premiere!
Director Graham Swon and actress Ayla Guttman in person!
An old woman's voice recalls a terrible event from her distant past: on a summer night in 1996, five teenage girls meet in a suburban house, absent of parental supervision. To pass the time, they begin to tell morbid stories of the world outside, trying to best one another in a grim competition. As the night becomes darker and their play becomes more serious, their world of fiction is consumed by reality in this feverish Decameron-in-miniature.
In person: Graham Swon and Ayla Guttman
A spoken film, of course, but one where the faces vibrate as much as the voices.
Paola Raiman, Cahiers du Cinema
The World is Full of Secrets is the sheer fascination of scary stories told by the fire. The result is poisonous poetry that leaves you speechless.
Gregory Coutaut, Le Polyester
An offbeat tale of adolescence... as mysterious as its title suggests and among the most beautiful of this year’s [BAMcinemaFest] selections. Like a Miguel Gomes or Pedro Costa, this kind of cinema is possibly further enriched by a brief drift into dreamland.
Kiristen Yoonsoo Kim, Artforum
Rare is the film that looks outward, towards something or someone else. The World Is Full of Secrets does this, not only through its female teenage protagonists, but also through its oral depiction of historical events. The stories the girls tell and the violence they contain are real, impersonal and, in turn, thrillingly uncomfortable.
Gina Telaroli, The Brooklyn Rail
The elegance of the words is complemented by the elegance of the fixed planes of the faces, while the language used evokes a bygone literary tradition that takes the film to a level where the visual construction is closely linked to the narrative... [Swon] remembers Shirin, by Kiarostami, where the careful literary construction was reflected in the faces and reactions of the protagonists.
Aldo Padilla, Desistfilm
