Ni de lian, Your Face Tsai Ming Liang, 2018

Comprised of a series of portrait shots of mostly anonymous individuals (Tsai devotees will no doubt recognize his longtime muse, Lee Kangsheng), the film shrewdly deemphasizes language while reducing context to a bare minimum. In their place, the beauty and imperfections of each face take center stage. Accompanied by Ryuichi Sakamotos soundtrack of dynamically modulating drone frequencies, Tsais subjects variously speak, stare, and, at one point, sleep as the camera quietly registers the weight of personal history and accumulated experience writ beautifully across every last pore and crevasse. NYFF