Summer at the Pergola: No Other Choice | Film Thursday & Outdoor Cinema

Fresh releases and great cinema, every Thursday at 21:30. Screenings take place under the open sky, surrounded by the Multimedia Fountain and the greenery of the Pergola. The Film Thursdays programme features exclusively new films – both major hits and less obvious stories.

These cinematic gems are accompanied by the film-like setting of the Pergola. The murmur of the Fountain, the greenery, and the magic of cinema under the stars give every screening a unique atmosphere. Not even bad weather can spoil it – if necessary, screenings will be moved indoors within the complex.

The number of deckchairs available on site is limited. It’s worth arriving early to grab a spot, or simply bring a blanket and settle in comfortably on the grass.

When the job market is merciless, you have to eliminate the competition. The protagonist of No Other Choice – the new film by Park Chan-wook, creator of Oldboy, The Handmaiden, and Decision to Leave – literally takes matters into his own hands. The Korean master of genre cinema delivers a disturbingly accurate diagnosis of contemporary anxieties – in his uncompromising, signature style.

Man-su (Squid Game star Lee Byung-hun) leads a perfect life: stable employment, a family, a house, two golden retrievers. But it takes just one day for this idyll to turn into horror. Man-su loses his job at a paper factory, and with it his status, masculinity, identity, honour, and the meaning of life. To regain them, he will stop at nothing – especially since wet work brings just as much satisfaction as the paperwork kind.

Although it mercilessly mocks the rat race, corporate mentality, and the male ego, the director also speaks out on the contemporary job market in the age of AI. Like the cult Parasite, No Other Choice, beneath its layers of black humour, hides perceptive observations about class tensions and turbulent social change. Half-jokingly, half-seriously, Park Chan-wook poses us a provocative question: is there a job you would kill for?

Director: Park Chan-wook

Cast: Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won

Country: South Korea

Year: 2025

Genre: thriller, black comedy

Running time: 139 min

Film language: Korean

Subtitle language: Polish