A24 has released the official trailer for “After Yang,” the sophomore feature of “Columbus” filmmaker Kogonada, releasing in theaters on March 4.
Based on the short story “Saying Goodbye to Yang” by Alexander Weinstein, “After Yang” is set in a world where robots are purchased as live-in babysitters for children. Married couple Jake (Colin Farrell) and Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith) purchase Yang (Justin H. Min) as a babysitter for their adopted daughter Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja) to help her stay in touch with her Chinese heritage. When Yang begins to malfunction, Jake goes on a journey to find a way to fix him, and in the process discovers a distance between him and his family he didn’t realize existed. The cast is rounded out by Haley Lu Richardson, Sarita Choudhury and Clifton Collins Jr. Phillip Engelhorn served as the film’s executive producer.
“After Yang” had its world premiere at Cannes Film Festival last July, where it received highly positive reviews from critics. In his review of the film, Variety chief film critic Peter Debruge wrote that Kogonada’s “concerns remain fundamentally human. The movie’s pulse seldom rises above resting, but the director invites audiences to dive as deep as they want to go into the film’s themes, to read subtext into body language, silence and the space between characters.” The film recently had its North American premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this January, where it won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize.
Watch the full trailer below.