The Red Flute

A Korean village at the turn of the century. Ian, the village teacher, kills one of his pupils in a rage. Before the parents find out about their child’s death, Ian has escaped to China. The unhappy father knows that he shall not find peace until he has avenged the killing. He sells his house and leaves the village to trace the killer. When after a lengthy and fruitless hunt he starts to feel too old, he decides to remarry to sire a son who will be able to take over his task. A deaf-mute girl in the village eventually gives him the son. He is called Sungu and immediately has a heavy burden placed on his shoulders. From his infancy, he is told he will have to kill a man he doesn’t yet know. Only then will the soul of his father be able to find rest. When he doesn’t manage to avenge the death, there is no place on this earth for Sungu. The film is based on an adventurous dramatic story and comprises seven chapters, built up like a colourful fresco using many symbols from Oriental poetry and philosophy.Shinarbayev wanted to give his story about the fate of Sungu a broader significance. The idea of the vengeance traverses several periods and ends in the present as self-denial; the price of the vengeance is that all life and everything that exists on earth is destroyed.