A summer in South Korea: a filmmaker returns to her home country, driven by her complex relationship with her mother. In a small apartment in Incheon, an intimate story unfolds about a woman whose life has been shaped by disappointment and conformity. The youngest of four sisters, born unwanted, she left home at the age of twelve. Since then, she has struggled, marked by the expectations of society and her own family. The daughter's camera captures moments of intimacy and confrontation, an interplay of bitterness and tenderness that simultaneously documents the process of reconciliation and self-knowledge. The film combines a personal story with a striking portrait of the modernization of South Korea. The city of Incheon becomes a metaphor for a society that sells hope and dreams, but often generates unrealistic expectations. Poetic images and an associative narrative style reveal a city that is just as multi-layered and complex as the relationship between mother and daughter. Winner of the HFBK Film Prize, the film was presented at festivals such as the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and the Nordic Film Days Lübeck and was celebrated for its touching intimacy and profound reflection. A moving homage to the resilient power of a woman and at the same time a meditation on generational conflicts and the tension between tradition and progress.
Documentary, Independent
29min
16
KO
DE
A feminist return from Germany to Korea to her own mother, who “never had a life of her own”.
A summer in South Korea: a filmmaker returns to her home country, driven by her complex relationship with her mother. In a small apartment in Incheon, an intimate story unfolds about a woman whose life has been shaped by disappointment and conformity. The youngest of four sisters, born unwanted, she left home at the age of twelve. Since then, she has struggled, marked by the expectations of society and her own family. The daughter's camera captures moments of intimacy and confrontation, an interplay of bitterness and tenderness that simultaneously documents the process of reconciliation and self-knowledge.
The film combines a personal story with a striking portrait of the modernization of South Korea. The city of Incheon becomes a metaphor for a society that sells hope and dreams, but often generates unrealistic expectations. Poetic images and an associative narrative style reveal a city that is just as multi-layered and complex as the relationship between mother and daughter.
Winner of the HFBK Film Prize, the film was presented at festivals such as the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and the Nordic Film Days Lübeck and was celebrated for its touching intimacy and profound reflection. A moving homage to the resilient power of a woman and at the same time a meditation on generational conflicts and the tension between tradition and progress.