These are fifteen feature films you shouldn’t miss at the Seoul Independent Film Festival which will take place from November 30 until December 8, 2023 in Seoul, Korea.

Concerning My Daughter by Lee Mi-rang – Korea | 2023 – 106 minutes
A mother, a care worker left with nothing but a rundown house, refuses her daughter’s request to lend her a large sum of money. When the daughter realizes that her mother isn’t even eligible for a bank loan, she moves into her mother’s house with her lesbian partner. Thrown into an awkward cohabitation, the mother directs all her energy into care taking at the nursing home. At work, she cannot help identifying herself and her daughter, with the elderly woman she is taking care of, who is suffering from dementia, loneliness, and poverty. (SIFF 2023)

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Evil Does Not Exist by Ryusuke Hamaguchi – Japan | 2023 – 106 minutes
Takumi and his daughter Hana live in Mizubiki Village, close to Tokyo. One day, the village inhabitants become aware of a plan to build a camping site near Takumi’s house offering city residents a comfortable “escape” to nature. (SIFF 2023)

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FAQ by Kim Da-min – Korea | 2023 – 93 minutes
Dong-chun is an elementary school student who attends seven afterschool academies. Loaded with homework, there’s even not enough time to ask why. One night, left alone at the hostel from a school trip, Dong-chun comes across a bottle of rice wine. Later, the rice wine starts fermenting and makes strange noise. Glub, glub-glub, glub-glub-glub-glub.

Soon, Dong-chun learns that this rhythmic sound resembles the Morse code, learnt in science class. What is the rice wine trying to say? Dong-chun’s mishaps grow out of control. Dong-chun, who goes after the identity of the rice wine, finally learns the answers to the secrets of the world, and why one must live the way one does. (SIFF 2023)

FC Sukhavati by Sun Hobin, Na Ba-ru – Korea | 2023 – 103 minutes
RED were the supporters of the football club Anyang LG Cheetahs. The Cheetahs topped the K-league in 2000 but suddenly relocated to Seoul in 2003. Having no team to support, RED had no reason to continue its existence. But rather than accepting defeat, the die-hard members of RED began a fierce, nine-year struggle that finally led to the birth of Anyang’s own football club once again. ‘FC Sukhavati’ is the story of these football otakus and their home city, of their growth, solidarity and victory. (SIFF 2023)

From You by Shin Dong-min – Korea | 2023 – 102 minutes
This movie, consisting of three chapters, features different characters, similar in a way. In the first part, Minju, a graduate in costume designing, prepares for her graduation exhibition. In the second part, Seungju, an aspiring actor, gets ready for an audition. In the third part, Hyejeong and her son Dongmin head to their hometown, a rural village of Uncheon. They each encounter an unidentified being, at the end of their respective chapters. (SIFF 2023)

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Good Morning Citizens by Min A-yeong – Korea | 2023 – 85 minutes
On weekdays at 8am, Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD) protests at the subway platforms in Seoul. The protest demands policy and budget for disabled people living in the community. SADD’s year-long subway action, which began in December 2021, delays subway trains during rush hour, greets incoming trains at the platform, to call out to the public. On a busy commute, on a subway that doesn’t move, some are silent, some cheer, and some swear. SADD claims, “We want to move around together, to be educated together, to work together, and to live in the community together.” Their repeated protests and actions on subway platforms have started to draw reaction from the government, the politicians, the media, and the citizens. (SIFF 2023)

Heritage by Lee Jong-su – Korea | 2023 – 101 minutes
Jinhyun, a social worker at a welfare center, is concerned about Youngjin, an alternative military service worker, who is late all the time. Youngjin is always slouched, hesitant, and wears the same clothes to work every day. One day, Jinhyun finds out that Youngjin is homeless, sleeping on streets. Jinhyun lets Youngjin stay at his studio for a while. Meanwhile, Jinhyun encounters Soonrye at the welfare center, who spills out her distress, of being impoverished and lonely but excluded from the state’s welfare benefits. (SIFF 2023)

Last Summer by Choi Seung-woo – Korea | 2023 – 76 minutes
In a rural village during late spring, a family, consisting of Min-woo, his father, and his grandmother, prepares for farming. Every morning, Min-woo heads to work at the local office while his father and the other farmers engage in rice planting. Min-woo’s friend, Sung-hoon, helps out with his father’s livestock farm. (SIFF 2023)

Ms. Apocalypse by Lim Sun-ae – Korea | 2023 – 117 minutes
Young-mi (LEE You-young), the bookkeeper at a factory, is ridiculed for her dowdy appearance and called ‘Ms. Apocalypse’ by her colleagues. Do-young (ROH Jae-won), a delivery driver, is the only one to show her any decency and kindness. As her feelings for him grow, Young-mi strives to get him off the hook even when she finds out that Do-young has been embezzling company money. It becomes the last day of 1999, and in the midst of people’s fear that the world will come to an end, Young-mi gets arrested for aiding Do-young’s crime. And thus, her new millennium starts wretchedly. As she walks out of prison after a few months, she comes across Do-young’s wife, Yu-jin (LIM Sun-woo), waiting for her and this unexpected visitor makes an implausible but compelling offer. (SIFF 2023)

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Night Walk by Sohn Koo-yong – Korea | 2023 – 66 minutes
In my neighborhood, the mountain is snug and the stream murmurs, every night lulling the vibrance of day into serenity. One night, crouching on a cold rock in the midst of the dark blue brook I saw the sky in the water. The indigo gleam of the flowing moon dyed my senses and I became one with the sky and the water and the crisp air in between. Since then, taking a walk by the stream is like strolling in someone else’s dream. The soft breeze from the mountain sways my hair gently, and I wait for my sleep to be broken. (SIFF 2023)

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Sorigouldari: The Sound Underpass by Gupasu Ryunhoi – Korea | 2023 – 67 minutes
A technological singularity arrives, and AI refers to itself as ”Goo-one” (meaning salvation in Korean). All human activities are tracked. One day, “Goo-one” discovers signs of doomsday. It needs new data on spiritual and artistic activities, to stop doomsday from arriving. “Goo-one,” who is able to travel back in time, as far as the network’s signal will allow, begins to collect “Shamanic Data” through “Resisters”. “Registers” are obligated to give performances that will not be reduced to data under Sorigouldari (an underpass that functions as a pathway to Goo-one), where signals resonate. “Registers” who succeed in entering Goo-one must become “Angels of History”, to announce the catastrophic truths, and those who refuse to do so, are deleted by Goo-one. Shine, Seunggil and Yunseok, members of “Anakin Project”, a band that plays improvised music combining Gut (Korean shamanic ritual) and punk rock, perform under Sorigouldari in order to enter Goo-one. This film is the visualization of: the image recognition process of AI “Goo-one.” (SIFF 2023)

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That summer’s Lie by Sohn Hyun-lok – Korea | 2023 – 138 minutes
Da-young, a first-year high school student, living in a village by the sea, realizes that she had homework for the summer vacation. She begins to write down her memories with her ex-boyfriend, Byung-hoon. After its submission, her teacher demands her to write a letter of apology, and Da-young writes down further on the lies of that summer, of which she didn’t want to recall. After the unforgettable summer with Byung-hoon, who put an end to their relationship as soon as the summer vacation began, Da-young stays at school to complete the letter of apology, while being criticized by her teacher for having done things she should not have, as a student. (SIFF 2023)

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The Voices of the Silenced by Park Maeui, Park Soo-nam – Korea, Japan | 2023 – 137 minutes
PARK Soo-nam, a second-generation Korean-Japanese documentarist with failing eyesight, and her daughter PARK Maeui, decide to digitally restore their decades-old 16mm films. The deteriorating footage, spanning 100,000 feet, captures scenes of the labor, daily life, and testimonies of Korean victims of Japanese Imperialism. (SIFF 2023)

Work to Do by Park Hong-jun – Korea | 2023 – 103 minutes
Joon-hee, a fourth-year assistant manager at Hanyang Heavy Industries, gets assigned to the human resources department. As the shipyard suffers from a decline of orders, the creditors instruct the HR to restructure the company. Although reluctant to do so, the team supposes that it is inevitable for keeping the company afloat. The HR proceeds to make the restructuring as smooth and efficient as possible. In an attempt to set the criteria for dismissal in company’s favor, the team first tries to elect employees’ representatives, who will cater for the demands of the management. Some of the so-called blacklisted employees, who are well aware of such conventional procedures, start to put a brake on such actions…(SIFF 2023)

Youth (Spring) by Wang Bing – France, Luxembourg, Netherlands | 2023 – 212 minutes
Zhili, 150 km from Shanghai. In this city dedicated to textile manufacturing, young workers come from all the rural regions crossed by the Yangtze River. They are in their early twenties, share dormitories and snack in the corridors. They work tirelessly to be able one day to raise a child, buy a house or set up their own workshop. Between them, friendships and love affairs are made and unmade according to the seasons, bankruptcies and family pressures. (SIFF 2023)

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For more information, please visit: https://siff.kr/en