"I tried to convey the feelings I experienced in my youth": the Korean director Cho Hyun-suh about the film Winter Light

The Korean director Cho Hyun-suh introduced his film Winter Light, which is part of the Main Competition of the 48th Moscow International Film Festival.

The film’s main character, Da-bin, is a high school student who dreams of living like any other student; every day, he takes his younger sister, Eun-seo, who is deaf in one ear, to school and then picks her up to take home. When he learns that his family is planning to move to another neighborhood for her sake, he decides to apply for an international exchange program, hoping to go there with his girlfriend. The boy finds a job at a motel to pay for the expensive trip, but realizes that this only makes him even further away him from his goal.

Cho Hyun-suh: "In this film, I tried to convey the feelings and emotions I experienced in my youth. A clear feature of our country’s educational system is that we have new neighborhoods and residential areas inhabited by people of various economic backgrounds. The irony is that these neighborhoods are right next to each other, and children from both well-off and less wealthy families often go to school together. The problem of youth suicide is a hot issue in Korea, and, sadly, has even become mundane. The topic the film addresses is close to the hearts of Koreans, but I don’t know how well it will work with audiences from other countries".