The director of this documentary realizes that she spent more time complaining than trying to understand her father's feelings. In order to know him better, she meets people who also came from North Korea at the time of the Korean War, and documents their stories. She is particularly struck by pictures or the beautiful seaside village in North Korea which was her father's home. Confronting the awkward reality that it is too late to imagine how it looked like in his time, she plans to get there herself by sea.

<Forbidden Fatherland> is a documentary feature film, focusing on the suffering of families in the postwar generation, induced by the recurring problem of the country's split-up. The 20th century has been labelled as the most turbulent and tragic in modern Korean history. The last 70 years have been a strenuous and tumultuous period for those who have lost their living places and are deprived of any news from their families. Toward them, who are often tempted by a harsh conservative anticommunism, the postwar generation feels only indifference, or a profound anger and bitterness. This older generation is slowly passing away, and I wish to arouse, in this documentary, an awareness and an acknowledgment of the moral pain inflicted on each individual by the loss of his or her memories on account, ultimately, of the division of so many families through the country's division. And furthermore : how shall we finally accept and recognize North Korea ?

2018 제20회 부산독립영화제