As a victim, how do you come to terms with a traumatic event if the whole world seems to blame you for it? That’s the question facing 17-year-old Han Gong-Ju. After an incident in the small Korean village where she grew up, she is banished; sent to the large port of Incheon.
Here, the viewer becomes acquainted with Gong-Ju: lonely, isolated. She shyly seeks solace with the grumpy old woman who has taken her into her home, for instance by working for her in her small supermarket. At school, she slowly allows her classmate Eun-Hee to make friends with her, and she allows herself to be enrolled in the local a cappella singing group with apparent reluctance. But everything is coloured by that incident in the past that remains shrouded in mist for the viewer for a long time.
Director and scriptwriter Lee Su-Jin deliberately leaves many questions in the air in order to provide small snippets of information in flashbacks. Where are Gong-Ju’s parents? Why doesn’t she see her old friends any more? And above all: what happened that meant she had to be banished? As the camera stays close on Gong-Ju all the time, we slowly break through her meticulously constructed armour. But will she really be able to leave the past behind her?
Film details
- Country of production
- South Korea
- Year
- 2013
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2014
- Length
- 112"
- Medium/Format
- DCP
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