A new movie set in the unlikely modernist mecca of Columbus, Indiana, sheds light on the city's architectural gems and uses an interpersonal tale to question their importance today.

Released last month, the film follows the story of an architecture fanatic's evolving relationship with an architectural historian's son, as they both remain tied to Columbus by their parents.
Indiana probably does not top many people's lists of modernism meccas. But when South Korean, Nashville-based filmmaker Kogonada visited the midwestern state three years ago, he found inspiration in the midcentury architecture of its 20th largest town, and chose it as the setting for his critically acclaimed directorial debut.

"I knew I wanted to write a script about the burden of absence that children carry in regard to their parents," Kogonada told Dezeen. "When is it okay to move forward with our own lives and leave our parents" And when will our parents leave us for good" But it wasn't until I visited Columbus that the story and characters took shape." A city of about 45,000, Columbus is 180 miles from Chicago and worlds away from New York or Los Angeles. Nevertheless, a remarkable surge of corporate philanthropy led to its outsize role in modernist architecture.

In the 1950s, as the town's population increased, the Cummins Engine Foundation began offering to pay the architect fee for new public buildings ? but only if the architect was selected from an impeccable list ...