Screening accompanied by an introductoin.

Born in Korea but brought as a baby to France for adoption, free-spirited Freddie Benoît (Park Ji-min) travels on a whim to Seoul when her flight to Tokyo is cancelled, and just as spontaneously sets in motion the processes to find her birth parents. Over several years, and several revisits, her sense of individualism will be tested, her embrace of rootlessness will be loosened, and her negotiation of family will be lost in translation.

In Davy Chou’s sensitive study of the way identity shifts over time and with age, the complicated, engaging lead character prevents the drama drifting into melodrama, even as her maudlin Korean birth father (Oh Kwang-rok) also changes. If the very inclusion of a partly French film whose protagonist barely speaks any Korean might seem peculiar in a Korean film festival, the complexities of provenance are also a principal theme here.

Anton Bitel

Also screening at the Belfast Film Festival – International Competition – 12 Nov, 21:00