Exclusive: Co-introduction offices have closed the first wave of international sales finthe second feature by South Korean director Syeyoung Park, premieres the world premiere at this week’s current competition at Locarno Film Festival.
The film is set in a similar environment to postwar, ecologically devastated South Korea, where mutant outcasts called Omega have been arrested and exploited as cheap labor. A hidden omega, Mia works in a dark, creepy fishing shop that preys on people’s nostalgia for the ocean and fishing. When Sujin, a newly recruited government worker, noticed Mia’s suspicious behavior, she began to delve deep into this underground world and question her once unwavering belief in the state’s ideology.
The film blends dystopian science fiction with psychological and political undercurrents, questioning the mechanisms of fear, surveillance and state ideology.
Early sales ended with Alamode Film (Germany & Astria), Feelgood Entertainment (Greece), Aerofilms (Eastern Europe except Poland), Gutek Film (Poland), Filmstop (Baltics), Edko Films (Hong Kong), Collaboration with Proscate (Singapore), and Falcon Films (Mena).
The film is produced with the support of Seesaw’s Photography by Heejung Oh, Philippe Bober for Essential FilmProduktion, Park for Pretty Things Films and the Doha Film Institute.
Park debut feature Fifth thoracic vertebra It premiered on Bucheon and screened on Berlin’s Critics Week and Sitges.
Park said: “I’m trying to make a film that explores the infectiousness of fear and the creation of mythology. The film is set in a near South Korea, but hopefully it has a universal theme for all of us, and I am especially pleased that these early sales will be seen by a world-centric audience.”
Further sales are currently under negotiation.
(TagStoTRASSLATE)Festival (T)locarno
