Elegantly mounted and austere at the same time, Albert Shin’s debut feature (co-produced by long time filmmaking partner Igor Drljaca, director of Canadian festival favourite Krivina) looks at three generations of women bound by South Korean customs to a terrible situation.
A woman seeks to secretly adopt the soon to be born out of wedlock child of a rural teenager. The woman seeks to save face as she can’t have children of her own with her husband and keep the blood line going, while the teen’s mother is openly appalled and emotionally abusive towards her child.
All the characters are nameless and all the events take place at the same farmhouse in rural South Korea. Shin wisely pushes the men into the background to show the burden women face in a society that has never seen them as equals. The generational scars are real, and still ongoing, making a tragic story feel even more vital the more one learns about these women. It’s harrowing stuff, and it comes with a shocking climax that will be one of the most talked about endings this year.
This review was originally published as part of our TIFF 2014 coverage.
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