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Treeless Mountain

Director in Person
Screening on Film
$10 Special Event Tickets
Directed by So Yong Kim.
With Hee Yeon Kim, Song Hee Kim, Soo Ah Lee.
US/South Korea, 2008, 35mm, color, 89 min.
Korean with English subtitles.
Print source: Oscilloscope Pictures

A heart-rending homage to the resilience and imagination of children, Treeless Mountain tells the story of two young sisters suddenly abandoned by their mother and left with a rigid alcoholic aunt in a remote small town. Filmed near Kim's hometown of Hunghae, South Korea, Treeless Mountain was conceived as a "letter" to her mother and based on an indelible childhood experience. The casting of seasoned Korean performers in the adult roles beautifully frames the incredible untutored five and six-year old lead actresses discovered by Kim after an exhaustive casting, and makes clear the ultimate incompatibility of the parallel worlds created and inhabited by children and adults. Keeping dialogue to a wonderful minimum, Treeless Mountain carefully observes the rituals of play that bond the two sisters as they face an uncaring world with a fortitude far beyond their tender age.

Treeless Mountain introduction and post-screening discussion with Haden Guest and So Yong Kim.

 

 

PRECEDED BY

  • A Bunny Rabbit

    Directed by So Yong Kim.
    US, 2002, video, color, 5 min.

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