Treeless Mountain

(USA , South Korea, 2008, 89 mins)

35mm

Midwest Premiere

writer: So Yong Kim
director of photography: Anne Misawa
editors: So Yong Kim, Bradley Rust Gray
sound: Eric Offin/Tandem Sound
composer: Asobi Seksu
production designer: See Hee Kim
executive producer: Ian McGloin, Jamie Mai, Charlie Ledley
producer: Bradley Rust Gray, Ben Howe, Lars Knudsen, Jay Van Hoy, So Yong Kim
cast: Hee-Yeon Kim, Song-Hee Kim, Soo-Ah Lee, Mi-Hyang Kim, Boon-Tak Park

• IMDB Film Info

A latchkey kid in a Seoul tenement, Jin is already remarkably self-reliant for a six-year-old. When a sudden eviction forces her mother to go off in search of their absent father, Jin and her younger sister Bin are shunted into the negligent care of a distant aunt. With no guardians to count on, the girls must fend for themselves: they explore the neighborhood, catch and sell grasshoppers, and patiently wait for their mother to return. So Yong Kim, an American who grew up in South Korea, has described her semiautobiographical second feature as “a letter to my mother.” But Treeless Mountain is no vindictive memoir, à la Augusten Burroughs — Kim is after the more elusive goal of understanding, and her depiction of emotional abandonment is uncommonly quiet, observational, and understated. Many films have attempted a child’s eye perspective, but Kim achieves it — the camera rarely elevates above the heads of the young protagonists, and the motives defining the plot shifts are as enigmatic to the audience as to the kids. In Jin and Bin’s world, adults are a spectral presence, disembodied voices and limbs whose mysterious whims dictate the girls’ future with indisputable authority. The child stars give incredibly naturalistic performances, perhaps because Kim kept them as much in the dark about the plot as the characters — amazingly, the two young actors didn’t read the script, or even know much about the story. Exploring the connection between rural and urban environments with a childlike naiveté, Kim’s keenly felt memories have earned critical comparisons to Terence Malick. “Her camera hovering gently and unobtrusively around the girls as they play, quarrel and daydream, (Kim) turns their intimate moments into a quiet, poignant drama of abandonment and resilience. Her lens seems to be absorbing life rather than just recording it.” — A.O. Scott, New York Times. 2008 Toronto Film Festival; winner, 2008 Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Berlin; nominated 2009 Independent Spirit Awards.

Sponsored By:

UW Center for East Asian Studies
UW Asian American Studies

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