Map without Island

Feature showcase

KIM Sungeun | 2021 | Documentary | Color+B/W | DCP | 91min (K, E)

SYNOPSIS

Yasmin and I were collaborating on a film until she left Jeju Island without receiving refugee status. Delivering the letter Yasmin left in my camera to the friends on the island, I encountered a map made from disappearing landscapes and beings that have lost their ways back home.

DIRECTING INTENTION

When the construction work began to build a second airport on the island, Yasmin, who had fled Yemen during the civil war, arrived on Jeju Island after traveling through several countries. The entry of 549 Yemenis and their application for asylum in the summer of 2018 had become a loud controversy in S. Korea. We planned to collaborate on a film in the hopes of making her side of the story heard, but the project was canceled when she had to leave the island in a hurry. Inside the camera Yasmin was using to record her everyday life, she left a letter, which is forwarded to the friends who stand by the lives on the verge of evacuation due to the construction of the airport. Through the way the letter is delivered, the film now records the delicate changes it generates in the wavelength of each space surrounding each recipient’s body. I hope the film evokes the senses felt by those who are there, such as exchanges, relationships, and interactions that come before something becomes a case or a slogan.

DIRECTOR
KIM Sungeun

KIM Sungeun

2017 The Memory of the 25th Hour
2018 The Will
2020 Some Queer Bo-ki

STAFF

Director KIM Sungeun
Producer CHOI Hyea-yeong
Cinematographers KIM Sungeun, BAE Kkotnarae, LEE Sojeong, Yasmin ALQAIFI
Editor KIM Sungeun
Art Director JU Jaehun
Dance HWANG Moocho
Cast Yasmin ALQAIFI, BU Soonjeong, WANG Emily, GREEN C, HAN Jino, HWANG Moocho, Sunkyung