목화솜 피는 날

On the afternoon of the day before her school trip, Se-mi wakes up from her strange dream and heads to her Ha-eun. It was because she felt like she had to convey the feelings she had been holding back for a long time today. However, unlike her overflowing heart, the two keep falling apart.

Three part omnibus film, with each story connected to the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster, in which over 300 people, many students, perished when the ship sank.

Returning from eight years abroad at work and in prison, Jeong-il struggles to reconnect with his wife and their young daughter, Ye-sol, whom he barely knows.

On the run from a dogged internal affairs agent, a corrupt cop reluctantly teams up with a defiant teen to unravel a conspiracy before it's too late.

An old man living on the island of Mireukdo lives a self-sufficient life, adhering to ascetic principles typical of a monk. Now and then the phone rings and shortly thereafter a visitor arrives; the old man dutifully prepares rice cakes for them. The cakes are the last meal these visitors will eat before embarking on the seemingly long journey to the next world. The first to arrive is an angler, then a rat, and the last a teacher and two students.

Two semi-studious students living in 'Korea-Town' are interrupted & intrigued by the actions of a girl in a nearby building, witnessed via CCTV, whilst each trying to come to terms with important subjects in their university projects [one Korean related: the Sewol ferry tragedy, and one British: the Grenfell tower incident], as well as their own life challenges in this claustrophobic tragicomedy of alienation, helping hands & secretive students. Is all really what it seems?

Sejun and Song-i went on a school trip and couldn't return with the sunken ship. Leftover Seolhee and Seong-cheol wander under the weight of a hard life. Also, the remaining Sejun's mom and Song-i's dad remember and endure the children they sent first. The story of them living in a time that can't be cured.

When the MV Sewol ferry sank off the coast of South Korea in 2014, over three hundred people lost their lives, most of them schoolchildren. Years later, the victims’ families and survivors are still demanding justice from national authorities.

In her first feature-length documentary, filmmaker Nam Arum turns her camera on her parents, two members of South Korea’s 386 Generation. The political activism of this generation came to a head in June 1987 with major protests that forced the authoritarian government to hold universal suffrage elections and implement key democratic reforms. Over 35 years later, the filmmaker reflects on the state of this democracy through a warm-hearted family portrait set against the backdrop of the country’s recent history. Using a personal and intimate cinematic style, Arum examines her father's adherence to conventionality as a high-ranking civil servant and her mother's fervent enthusiasm as a feminist activist. In the midst of these two contrasting dynamics, Arum seeks to discover her own role and how she can contribute to social change.