Probably a film as fragile as Songs from the North will set a turning point in the way North Korea and the Juche Thinking are represented in cinema. The figure of Kim Jong-il –between the sinister and the extravagant– has made the North Korean regime a succulent dish for interpretations made from a distant Western cynicism. However, South Korean filmmaker Soon-Mi Yoo chooses a particular mix between a travel journal’s intimacy and archive footage that follows the easily recognizable and consensual depiction. The clash of such materials sprouts this film, in which everything we see and was captured by the cameras is filtered through the director’s emotions and her notes. A compassionate, familiar, contradictory piece that adjusts to the idea Cioran had about peoples as objects of both affection and aversion.
Section: Competencia Oficial InternacionalD, F, E: Soon-Mi Yoo
S: Nuno Henrique
P: Haden Guest, Soon-Mi Yoo, Rui Alexandre Santos
CP: Rosa Filmes
Rosa Filmes.
Rui Alexandre Santos
T +351 213 031 810 +351 910 013 420
E rui@rosafilmes.pt
W rosafilmes.com
Born in South Korea, she studied German Literature at the Yonsei University and Photography at Massachusetts Art School. She directed several short films, like Dangerous Supplement (2006), and participated in the co-directed documentary Far from Afghanistan (2012; Bafici ‘13).
05 May 2015
25 April 2015
25 April 2015
