어크로스: 전쟁은 어떻게 잊혀지는가ACROSS: Anatomy of the Forgotten War

DIRECTING INTENTION

When Cannelle, STOP RWM, and Jamal raise their voices, they create a fleeting, fragile moment of volatility. Their words soon vanish, rarely heard by the court, the weapons factory, or the people around them. But their energy, anger, and willfulness linger for a while, knocking on the wall of silence and shaking the many layers of indifference. I wanted to capture these flimsy, ephemeral moments following their lonely fights.
This project began when I heard about the arrival of a group of Yemenis on Jeju Island in May 2018 and the xenophobic rumors that followed. I felt I needed to explain what had brought them to this unlikely tourist island. As a migrant myself in Germany for years, I was also hoping this project could be a way of welcoming them. The quest led me to an unexpected journey, from the refugee issue to the arms trade, and to the system that breeds war.
The forgotten war in Yemen was a prelude to the revival of the war machine and this film is a survival manual from the periphery, where the war machine first extended its reach and the Western countries stood behind it for their own interest. When Cannelle, STOP RWM and Jamal confront the system, face, and fist of the war machine with silence and voice, anger and hope, contemplation and action, we will see how their frail resistance could generate power. Now that the war machine, unleashed as never before, serves a rising global autocracy, civilian casualties in war zones cannot be counted as any less, as if someone’s humanity were negotiable. In a dehumanizing world like this, perhaps their journey might remind us of how we keep our humanity - in other words, where we might find a humanizing force in the era of remilitarization under the thriving autocracy.