Name: The Day She Returns
Director: Hong Sang-soo
Released: 2026
Duration: 84 min

Ever-industrious South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo meditates on the nature of performance in this tale of a celeb coming in from the cold.

An actor sits in a restaurant for three back-to-back interviews with journalists about her role in a new independent film, which marks her return to the screen after a 12-year hiatus – a time period that coincided with her (recently ended) marriage. Over coffee and, later, a few crisp lagers, the movie star and her interlocutors chat about everything from dog breeds to divorce, from ageing to authentic self-expression. Despite the press cycle’s familiar beats, epiphanies emerge from both the conversations and the reflective silences in between.

The MIFF program would almost feel incomplete without a film from treasured festival fixture Hong Sang-soo, a master of minimalist, conversational works that mine true poetry from everyday exchanges. In his 34th feature – anchored by a beguiling turn from regular collaborator Song Seon-mi (Walk Up, MIFF 2023) – Hong interrogates the various modes of performance: not only the craft of acting, but also the ways in which we modify our self-presentation for different contexts.

“It’s one of [Hong Sang-soo’s] best works to date, as beneath its apparent simplicity, the story raises complex questions about the instability of memory and the differences between films and [the] experiences they are based on.” – Asian Movie Pulse