A 14-year-old girl named Ola, living in a shabby cramped apartment in the suburbs of Warsaw, takes care of her home by herself. Her father is on the drink all the time and inadequate as a parent, her mother left home and get in touch by telephone with her sometimes, and the autistic brother, two years younger than her, has always been mentally unstable.
The director Anna Zamecka succeeded in having intimate relations with the persons and in capturing the dramatic moments in her first feature-length film. She made this film near perfect with careful shooting and refined style of editing, though standing at a respectful distance. Since the documentary won the jury prize of ¡®Semaine de la critique¡¯ at the 2016 Locarno International Film Festival, it has been favorably reviewed and had the attention in Europe. [Han Sun-hee]
Anna Zamecka
Syria, the 'affected area' of the contemporary. There was the film
Andreas Dalsgaard
Obaidah Zytoon
Life/Imitation. The world of contradictory languages. The virtual/real packed with people performing their given duties, or following their postulated avatars like players of a role-playing game. The film <Life Imitation> combines the virtual and the real to reflect the anxiety and depression of the Shanghai youth. This film starts with the observation of textual conversation-the most pertinent method of the contemporary human to privately connect with someone-and calls us into the most real yet irreal time and space. The chat messages full of agony over love and solitude soon connect to the virtual reality of a computer game, then to the reality of a certain place in Shanghai. This is not developed through a consistent narration but is organically linked, and all of them may be the same being while being completely different beings. This world of the virtual/the real sometimes seem to be a borderless mass, or a dream to disappear after waking up, or a mirror where the frame of camera-figure-virtuality gaze into each other. This film illuminates the form of anxiety and depression through extending the concept of existence in multiple ways, eventually amplifying the surreal and the essentials. Numerous life/imitation(s) roam the streets of night or stay lying down, or idle about, but identify their existence through selfies. This is the way Life Imitation revives the irreversible beings. [Choi Min-a]
Zhou Chen
<Forgetting and Remembering 2: Reflection> is a 5-section omnibus documentary which focuses on the less highlighted issues surrounding the Sewol ferry disaster. Director Ahn Chang-gyu¡¯s <Boarding> is about Sung-mook Kim, the last passenger and the last escapee of the Sewol ferry. The out-focused portrait of a young victim of the Sewol ferry behind Kim¡¯s face-who reminisce the short meeting with a boy who gave his life vest to his friend-seems to speak to the audience. <Diver>, the posthumous film of director Park Jong-pil, covers the life and death of the late diver Kim Kwan-hong. By adding the struggle of those left behind after his funeral, Park reflects his wish for Kim¡¯s death to be nothing in vain. Kim Hwan-tae¡¯s <Five Enemies against Sewol> tracks down the deep-rooted evil instead of focusing on the victims like other films. The satire of this film works as an instrument to face those who cannot bear to see. Director Kim Tae-il and Joo Ro-mi¡¯s <Stopped Walking> is a film about the pantomime performer Ryu Sung-gook who 'speaks with his body.' This film delineates the process of Ryu-who performed mime acts every Saturday at the Marronnier park for introspection of his indifference-and the mothers of Sewol ferry disaster¡¯s victims healing through their meeting at the play 'His and Her Wardrobe.' Moon Sung-jun¡¯s <Reach to Remember> displays the conflicts between citizens concerning the construct of the Ansan Sewol ferry monument park. The bereaved had to persuade the opponents by emphasizing that the monumental park is not an unpleasant facility, but a space with business values. Conflicts like this make us ponder upon the way we embrace death. [Kim So-hee]
4.16 Act Media Committee
Rice Flower praises for the beauties of nature for seasonal variations and for the sublime work of peasants, by capturing wholly the life of rice from the rice seed to the sheaf of rice before becoming 'Bap', the Koreans' staple food. It is interesting that the camera depicts people and things in great detail, tracing the life of rice and peasants in the course of nature: the white rice flowers looking like grains of steamed rice, the surface of rice paddy fields like a river or a sea, the sound of the wind rustling in the trees along the ridges between rice paddies, the bright sunlight on the water of the rice paddy fields, all living things under the cloudy water and so on. While the peasants work on in silence from their positions, the rice grows up with coexisting with the nature or fighting against it. The director Oh Jung-hun also observes and records them by his side. The film seems to prove, through his simple act, that only the patience and persistence help us reach their world. And it is not just for the purpose of education or of giving information that it presents the cycles of repetition and circulation, including the process to make rice paddies such as plowing the dry ground, opening up the waterway. At the root of the film is the modest but great truth: even though the time of birth and death given to nature and human being is threatened by a system of distribution and consumption in the society, the human efforts of cultivating and production in the nature are repeated. [Park In-ho]
Oh Jung-hun
How did a common American citizen turn into a follower of North Korea after visiting North Korea? Eun-mi Shin, an American citizen who visited North Korea time to time with her husband, is condemned as a follower of North Korea when she shares her experience of the visit there. Then, the 'unification' book concert she was invited to is suddenly branded as a 'pro-North Korea' concert. Once her family turns their back on her, Shin decides to fight against the false charges. <To Kill Alice> is not about Shin¡¯s story of North Korea, but the image of us from Shin¡¯s perspective. According to the film, we bear a certain exclusivity which does not allow even the most insignificant advocacy towards North Korea. The truth is soon disclosed: this outcome derived from the collaboration of cable TV programs and conservative groups. The center space of the film is the cramped inside of a van, crisscrossing the whole country for a talk show about books. The film itself takes on the nature of a road movie, as it participates in the journey of the van. This van full of worries of the talk show seems to implicate the South Korean society, a place as closed as the North Korean tourist bus which never breaks away from the predetermined courses. One day, Shin repeatedly draws heart shapes on the damp windows of the van. This scene shows what kind of person she is without a single word. But then the film shows the face and the interview of the criminal who bombed the talk show. The ordinary and youthful face of the criminal without a trace of regret is frightening as much as 'a movie.' Is that face asking for the sympathy of the spectators? Or is it a warning? This is the task the film leaves to the spectators. [Kim So-hee]
Kim Sang-kyu
The issue of 'hatred' is not new to Koreans anymore. In fact, the advent of anti-immigrant hate would not be bizarre in South Korea¡¯s state of deepening misogyny and hatred for the disabled.
In the neighboring country of Japan, Zainichis(Korean residents in Japan) are symbolic beings of the Chosun Dynasty¡¯s unfortunate colonization in the early 20th century, but are undeniably the social members and the citizens of contemporary Japan at the same time. Nevertheless, discrimination against the Zainichi is prevalent, with a far-right organization called 'Jaitokai' taking the lead in this protest of hatred.
Then one day, the 'Counters (The opposers of discrimination protests),' more specifically men called the 'Otokogumi (ÑûðÚ),' make an appearance. They either threaten or physically interfere with the Jaitokai protestors whenever there is a protest of hatred. Takahashi, the commander of these troubleshooters of hate protests, is a yakuza-like macho. The reason why this man of the dark led the anti-protest group is quite ironic. It is because he thinks Jaitokai protestors are unjust and not 'manly(!)' enough.
This film is never boring due to the speedy editing of the film and its use of CG, lively cinematography resembling a game interface or an action film, and the fast development of sequences. <Counters> pulls down the stereotype that documentaries are too difficult to understand. Above all, it offers food for thought to Korea¡¯s reality with its grave issue of hatred. [Hong Jae-hee]
Lee Il-ha
In the city, buildings are workplaces, houses, precious bases for living or a tool for a profit from redevelopment, or just a ¡®work¡¯ that people can earn some pocket money to hang out with friends by demolishing structures as a part time job. The first scene of the documentary shot by an infrared camera during the middle of the night shows a rather fair figure wavering through a huge hole in the wall harshly torn down. That unidentifiable pale figure wanders around redevelopment areas, among broken buildings like a ghost. A voice of a demolition service man is constantly heard with these images. In a youthful voice, the man indifferently talks about the landscape he was during the demolition and what he felt at the moment and when this voice layers upon the scene of demolished landscapes, it feels like the camera visits the brutal scene of murder. The violence committed by these people, so called service gangster, chopped out certain places that must have been someone¡¯s meaningful spaces, and these emptied spaces seem to have a spirit weakly breathing that hasn¡¯t been stopped yet. The camera crosses between the landscape of ruined night and demolition site in the day while observes broken scenes, noises, and gestures of demolition service. The images shot by, for example, a hidden camera during the day feel like the eyes of some hidden figure left at buildings not yet broken. In the night when everyone left, those eyes still dig up every corners of buildings looking for the place to spend the night, the place to hide. [Lee Jeong-bin]
Park Soo-hyun
Rice Flower praises for the beauties of nature for seasonal variations and for the sublime work of peasants, by capturing wholly the life of rice from the rice seed to the sheaf of rice before becoming 'Bap', the Koreans' staple food. It is interesting that the camera depicts people and things in great detail, tracing the life of rice and peasants in the course of nature: the white rice flowers looking like grains of steamed rice, the surface of rice paddy fields like a river or a sea, the sound of the wind rustling in the trees along the ridges between rice paddies, the bright sunlight on the water of the rice paddy fields, all living things under the cloudy water and so on. While the peasants work on in silence from their positions, the rice grows up with coexisting with the nature or fighting against it. The director Oh Jung-hun also observes and records them by his side. The film seems to prove, through his simple act, that only the patience and persistence help us reach their world. And it is not just for the purpose of education or of giving information that it presents the cycles of repetition and circulation, including the process to make rice paddies such as plowing the dry ground, opening up the waterway. At the root of the film is the modest but great truth: even though the time of birth and death given to nature and human being is threatened by a system of distribution and consumption in the society, the human efforts of cultivating and production in the nature are repeated. [Park In-ho]
Oh Jung-hun
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Heo Na-gyeong
This impressive scene of silence in the opening of the film helps the audience experience the conditions of Sore who is hearing impaired. She attends Haja Production School, an alternative education institute for school dropouts, and plays in a musical performance team. The documentary film shows how she communicates with her friends and how much she enjoys her school life.
Being hearing impaired, she has a cochlear implant in one ear and wears a hearing aid in the other. In the film, she listens carefully to the sound of musical instruments, asks her friend a question, and practices her instrument just like any other normal student. It is a common misperception that a person with impaired hearing is not able to enjoy music. Instead, Sore is skilled enough to teach her friends without disabilities how to play her musical instrument. Her friends at school have never had any difficulty in communicating with her and even hardly felt that she is different while she is playing her instrument. However, it is not the case for Sore. If her hearing aid does not work well or if she cannot see the mouth of the person speaking, Sore would have a trouble communicating clearly. The following scene illustrates in her own narration how Sore, a hearing-impaired person, hears and communicates with others, which makes her look a little bit lonely. Actually, it may feel lonely if no one understands what you hear or if you don't understand what others hear.
It may not be natural to insist that anyone with physical challenges be treated equally with their non-disabled counterparts. It is important for able-bodied people to reject social discrimination or prejudice against those with disabilities. But it is also important to try to understand the circumstances of the physically challenged in their shoes. The directors of this film entered the world of Sore by understanding the different way of hearing. Now they narrates the importance of such an approach in this film. [Kyung Hee-ryeung]
Kim Min-seo
Kim Nam-ju
Lee Sung-jae