This feature by Kim Ki-Duk, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice film Festival, is closer to harsh, strange and morally confusing predecessors like Samaritan Girl and Bin-jip/3-Iron than to his modest contemplation Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring. Unlike the breathtaking natural beauty of that Buddhist reflection, Pieta is dark, nerve racking, urban and coarse.
Yet the theme is just as existential. An unscrupulous sidekick in Seoul, who cruelly maims people who don’t pay their debts to a usurer in order to claim insurance money, is suddenly confronted with his long-lost mother. She pursues him until he allows her into his solitary, immoral life. And that brings him doubts about what he’s doing and who he is. In addition, Kim mixes the Christian symbolism of the pietà (Mary mourning over the dead Jesus on her lap) with black humour and sexual tension between mother and son.
Film details
- Country of production
- South Korea
- Year
- 2012
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2013
- Length
- 104'
- Medium/Format
- HDcam
