Dust and Ashes

Park Hee-kwon : 2019
축복의 집

Hae-su, a frail young girl who works at a factory, is always covered in dust. There seems to be a problem at home, and she seems to be taking care of it in a mysterious way. Her mother has died and the girl runs around anxiously in order to hold the funeral in secrecy. She is clearly in distress, but what is the truth behind Hae-su's suspicious behaviour? Unanswered questions trigger lingering, disquieting feelings about what really happened, how it happened and what lies in the future for her. Park Hee-kwon's feature debut premiered in competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2019.

Bring Me Home

Kim Seung-woo : 2019
Na-reul cha-ja-jwo

Six years after her son went missing, dedicated mother Jung-yeon still hasn't lost hope – even after her husband's shocking accident while rushing to follow up on a potential sighting. Although she's in mourning, drowned in despair for her losses, she doesn't give up. Just when everything feels like it's in vain, she hears about a young boy living in a fishing community outside the city who seems to resemble her lost son. Facing strange surroundings and corrupt cops covering up child abuse, Jung-yeon may not be able to handle all the obstacles in her way, let alone fend for herself. Kim Seung-woo's feature debut premiered in the Discovery section at Toronto International Film Festival 2019.

House of Hummingbird

Kim Bo-ra : 2018
Beol-sae

Korea, 1994. The South is in the grips of World Cup fever, while the North mourns its newly deceased dictator. Eun-hee registers all of this only in passing. Drifting through her days in Seoul, the eighth-grader feels like an outsider everywhere: at school, where her classmates bore her even more than the schoolwork, and at home, where her parents are always at each other's throats and her brother beats her. She tries to fall in love, has to go to hospital after an inconclusive biopsy, and has a falling-out with her best friend – yet nothing moves her with the same unexpected intensity as when a new Chinese tutor enters her life. With visual precision, the film weaves a dense narrative around a regular summer that leaves nothing unchanged. Kim Bo-ra's feature premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2018, and was winner of the Grand Prix of the Generation 14plus International Jury at its European premiere at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

Burning

Lee Chang-dong : 2018
Beoning

Deliveryman Jong-su runs into Hae-mi, a girl he used to know who once lived nearby. She asks if he'd mind looking after her cat while she's away on a trip to Africa. On her return she introduces Jong-su to her new rich and handsome friend Ben, who she met during her trip. Ben is a coolly charming and enigmatic sociopath. "He's like Gatsby" mumbles Jong-su to Hae-mi. Ben confesses that he likes burning down greenhouses and that he plans to torch one in Jong-su's neighbourhood. Jong-su is keeping a close eye on things, but no greenhouse goes up in flames. Then he realises that he hasn't heard from Hae-mi in a while. In fact, she has disappeared without a trace. Based on a short story by Haruki Murakami, Lee Chang-dong's psychological thriller was winner of the FIPRESCI Prize when it premiered in competition at Festival de Cannes 2018.

The Day After

Hong Sang-soo : 2017
Geu-hu

Areum looks forward to her first day of work at a small publishing house. Until recently, her boss Bongwan was in a relationship with the girl Areum is replacing. Like every other day, Bongwan leaves home early, and on the way to work he thinks constantly of the love he has lost. But today his wife finds a love letter he wrote and she heads to the publishing house. There she mistakes Areum for the woman who was having an affair with her husband. A tale of love, separation, jealousy, and disappointment. Hong Sang-soo's feature premiered in competition at Festival de Cannes 2017.

On the Beach at Night Alone

Hong Sang-soo : 2017
Bamui haebyun-eoseo honja

After an affair with a married man, celebrated actress Young-hee decides to take some time out. She travels to the far-off, foreign city of Hamburg. In a conversation with a friend she asks herself if her lover will follow her and whether he misses her as much as she misses him. During her long walks through wintry parks and along riverbanks she attempts to become clear about her feelings and desires. Back in Korea, Young-hee meets some old friends in the coastal town of Gangneung. They eat and drink together and under the influence of alcohol Young-hee provokes, insults and angers the others. Their conversations get more and more out of hand, giving vent to minor and major realisations and truths. Afterwards, Young-hee withdraws to a deserted beach. It seems as if she can only truly find herself in nature. Hong Sang-soo's feature won the Silver Bear for Best Actress when it premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2017.

Alone

Park Hong-min : 2015
Honja

Su-min spies from his balcony on the house of neighbours over the road and happens to photograph a brutal murder. It marks the start for a series of muddy events. Until Su-min wakes up and it seems he has dreamt it all. But there is no avoiding of horrific events, while it becomes less and less clear whether they are real or inside his head. Memories, dream and reality become entangled. Victims and culprits continually swap roles. A nightmare set in a labyrinthine residential area of Seoul. Houses are close together, but there's no one on the street. Su-min can run as far as he likes, but always seems to return to the same spot. Park Hong-min's second feature had its international premiere in competition in the Bright Future section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2016.

Snow Paths

Kim Hee-jung : 2015
Seol haeng

Jeong-woo, a young alcoholic arrives for treatment at a sanatorium run by nuns. Although not normally permitted, his mother arranged an exemption that allows him to spend the winter there. As the only patient, he soon succumbs to a sense of loneliness – the convent's strict rules do not offer much in the way of stimulation and he fails to become friends with the nuns. Eventually, however, one of them grows close to him. But Maria is no ordinary individual. She has visionary dreams and betrays signs of saintliness. A second patient is then admitted, a strange hunter who violates the convent's rules and leads Jeong-woo down the wrong path. Kim Hee-jung's dark, dramatic and dreamlike tale, her third feature, premiered at Jeonju International Film Festival 2015, and had its European premiere at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2015.

Mu-roe-han

Oh Seung-uk : 2015
The Shameless

Homicide detective Jung Jae-gon is chasing after a suspect of a murder case. He knew his suspect would get in touch with his lover Kim Hye-kyung, who is a madam at a third-rate bar. Jung goes undercover as the suspect's former cellmate and becomes the floor manager at the bar where Hye-kyung works, and watches her every move. But as Jung spends more time with her, he feels a strange sense of guilt and his resolve to catch the suspect is shaken. Having dedicated his life to police work, Jung doesn't understand the feeling he feels towards Hye-kyung. On the other hand, Hye-kyung waits tirelessly for her lover to come back to her, but she begins to open up to Jung, who is always by her side. Oh Seung-uk's feature premiered in competition in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2015.

O Piseu

Hong Won-chan : 2015
Office

An exemplary office worker and head of his family Kim Byung-guk murdered his entire family without any provocation and disappeared into thin air. Homicide detective Jong-hoon immediately begins his investigation at Kim's office but all of Kim's colleagues seem to be hiding something. He realises that Kim and an intern named Mirae were close and suspects something out of the ordinary. During his investigation, Jong-hoon obtains CCTV footage of Kim entering the office parking lot immediately following the murder of his family but he was never seen exiting. Meanwhile, Kim's colleagues are all on the edge, fearing that Kim may come after them for various reasons. Hong Won-chan's feature debut premiered, out of competition, in the Séances de minuit at Festival de Cannes 2015.

Madonna

Shin Su-won : 2015

Hye-rim, a 35-year-old woman, finds a job at a hospital as a caregiver assigned to a quadriplegic VIP patient who practically owns the hospital. For the past 10 years, the patient's son Sang-woo has been desperately keeping him alive for money, ordering the doctors to perform several heart transplants despite recurrent heart failures. In need of another one, Sang-woo takes a brain dead unidentified woman as a donor and asks Hye-rim to look into her background. She discovers that the woman was once a prostitute known as 'Madonna' who has experienced a lifetime of abuse, and that she is pregnant. In an attempt to save Madonna's unborn child, Hye-rim goes against Sang-woo's orders and searches for the baby's father. Shin Su-won's third feature premiered in competition in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2015.

Alive

Park Jung-bum : 2014
Sanda

Jung-cheol, a building labourer in the mountainous province of Gangwon, takes care of his niece and his mentally unstable sister. You earn as much as you work, and you live off that money. This simple proposition has always been a problem for Jung-cheol. At the soybean curd factory he went to work for in the bitter winter, he dreams of travelling to warm Philippines in spring; as long as he survives the winter making his portion of the soybean paste that he promised the boss. But the more he struggles to live, the worse it gets. And soon, the fermentation room turns musty with the black mold spreading from the thousands of fermented soybean lumps. From here on, it's a downward spiral. A provocative film which examines the fate of those at the bottom of South Korea's social ladder. Park Jung-bum's second feature premiered at Jeonju International Film Festival 2014, and screened in the Bright Future section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2015.

A Matter of Interpretation

Lee Kwang-kuk : 2014
Kkum-bo-da hae-mong

A detective who is better at interpreting dreams than at solving murders, and an actress without an audience meet on a bench in the park. The actress has stormed out of a theatre after throwing a fit at her troupe members when no one came to her play. She then meets a suspicious detective who explains how he saw a woman who committed suicide nearby. The detective's tale of the woman who suffocated to death in a car is followed by the actress attempting suicide in a car, and her discovery of the detective locked up in the car boot. Her dream is the starting point of a story-within-a-story, using dream logic to play hide-and-seek with reality. What is real and what is not is a matter of interpretation. Lee Kwang-kuk's second feature received the CGV Movie Collage Award when it premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2014, and had its European premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2015.

The Avian Kind

Shin Yeon-shick : 2014
Joryu ingan

A novelist, Kim Jeong-seok has spent years searching for his missing wife. Fifteen years previously, she left him and their young daughter behind and disappeared. He wrote a novel about his experience. When Jeong-seok comes across a young girl, Alice, who read his novel and is also looking for someone who disappeared, she tells him she can help find his wife. Clues start suddenly appearing as to the fates of both women. Along the way they meet various people, but each one is secretly hiding the purpose of their own search. Rumours grow about the fate of the missing people: can they have really changed into another form of life? A road movie that develops thriller material into a fascinating fairy tale in which mythical elements come together to form a multi-layered allegory on the modern-day wish for self-discovery. Shin Yeon-shick's fifth feature premiered at Jeonju International Film Festival 2014.

Thuy

Kim Jae-han : 2013

Thùy, a Vietnamese national, is married to a Korean man and lives with her in-laws in rural Korea. She is sincere to him and his parents, whilst slowly adapting to life in a foreign country. One day, she is informed that her husband has died in a motorcycle accident. Thùy's suspicions are aroused as she knows that her husband, who had lost several fingers, was incapable of riding a motorcycle. When she starts probing into the details of the accident and his death, she is faced with ambivalence and threats. In this rural village patrolled by the villagers themselves, Thùy's struggle to find the truth keeps hitting roadblocks. A police officer from Seoul wants to help her, but he is of no great use in the face of the local police chief's inaction and the villagers' habit of completely ostracising outsiders. Kim Jae-han's feature debut premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2013, and had its international premiere at Dubai International Film Festival 2013.

Scarlet Innocence

Yim Pil-sung : 2014
Madam Bbaengduk

Eight years ago, university professor Hak-kyu moved to a small town because of a scandal and began working as a literature instructor at a culture centre. He fell in love with a young woman, Deok-yi, who worked at an old amusement park. Once Hak-kyu was reinstated at the university he left the town for Seoul, leaving Deok-yi behind. Deok-yi refused to let the relationship die, and a confrontation between them turned tragic when Hak-kyu's wife committed suicide. Eight years later, Hak-kyu is a popular writer, but now almost blind and estranged from his daughter Chungee. He befriends a new neighbour, Se-jung. He gladly accepts her help and Chungee becomes attached to her, neither realising she is in fact Deok-yi whom he betrayed and that she is on a quest to destroy them. A modern-day adaption of Shim Chung, a classic Korean folktale. Yim Pil-sung's third feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2014.

In Her Place

Albert Shin : 2014

An affluent city woman and her husband arrive at a desolate farm in rural South Korea, where a pregnant teenager and her mother have agreed to let them adopt the girl's unborn child. The city woman stays to assist with the girl's pregnancy due to an arrangement that promises hope for the future of all three women. The city woman becomes accustomed to life on the farm; however, it becomes clear she is leading a double life. When speaking on the phone to friends and family, the woman pretends to be in the US. As days turn into weeks, she takes care of the pregnant girl and tries to earn her trust while the mother toils long hours in the fields. The relationship changes as the woman discovers that the girl's boyfriend is still in the picture and has been sneaking around the farm to be with her. Fearing that he will complicate the situation, the mother takes action and makes it known that his behaviour will not be tolerated. The woman, curious about the girl's suitor, gets to know him a little better. As weeks turn into long months, the girl becomes increasingly depressed by her isolation on the farm and her loneliness becomes suffocating, as does her life under the careful watch of the city woman. She soon uncovers the truth behind her boyfriend's absence, and her desperation to be free takes hold. Albert Shin's second feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2014.

Sae-chul-bal

Jang Woo-jin : 2014
A Fresh Start

After finishing his military service, Ji-hyeon returns to his studies, only to face difficult family issues and rumours of his college department being abolished. At a literary club meeting, Ji-hyeon meets Hye-rin, who shares his concerns, and they have an impulsive one night stand after the meeting. During the following days they stay at an awkward distance from each other until Hye-rin finds out she is pregnant. They both agree to have an illegal abortion and travel together to a remote clinic in the countryside. Unfortunately, they don't have enough money for the surgery and they get kicked out, spending the rest of the day desperate and lost in an unknown place. The next morning, they give up their plan and decide to head to the east coast of Korea, where Ji-hyeon served in the army. Jang Woo-jin's feature debut was winner of the Grand Prize for Korean Competition when it premiered at Jeonju International Film Festival 2014.

Cold Eyes

Cho Ui-seok & Kim Byung-seo : 2013
Gam-si-ja-deul

Ha Yoon-ju is the new recruit in Seoul's crack police surveillance team. As the murderously efficient criminal mastermind James stage-manages a heist from a watchful distance, Yoon-ju is tested by her new boss, Detective Hwang. She follows him through the city and is expected to see and remember, not only everything he does but also everything that occurs around him. In their line of work, perception is an asset to be honed to perfection. As James and his cohorts embark on the proverbial one last job, Hwang's team is determined to bring an end to James's activities. What Hwang doesn't know is that James's secret employer has plans of his own. Drawn from a seemingly infinite number of viewpoints, this crime thriller centres on the world of modern high-tech surveillance and its utility for both fighting crime and committing it. Cho Ui-seok and Kim Byung-seo's collaborative feature received its international premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2013.

A Girl at My Door

July Jung : 2014
Dohee-ya

As a promising graduate from the National Police Academy, Young-nam gained a high-ranking position at the police headquarters in Seoul. But following an incident of misconduct involving her private life, she is transferred to a small coastal village. When she takes office as head of the local police station, she encounters Do-hee, a strange and sinister teenage girl. As Young-nam tries to adapt to her new surroundings, Do-hee's grandmother suffers ​​a fatal fall from a cliff into the sea. She then discovers that Do-hee is being physically abused by her violent stepfather, Yong-ha, since her mother ran away. Concerned for the girl, Young-nam takes Do-hee under her wing. Despite being abandoned by her mother and suffering the violence of her stepfather, Do-hee retains a childlike innocence. Affected by the personality of the girl and her plight, Young-nam lets Do-hee stay at her place but things turn out to be more mysterious as she gets to know her and Do-hee develops an obsessive attachment to Young-nam. July Jung's feature debut premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2014.