Events

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE - NYICFF proudly presents the North American premiere of this fascinating and remarkable animated autobiography that traces the unconventional upbringing of filmmaker Jung Henin, one of thousands of Korean children adopted into Europe after the end of the Korean War. 

A series of gorgeously animated, sepia-toned vignettes – some humorous and some poetic – track Jung from the day of his adoption as he meets his new (blond) siblings, through elementary school, and into his teenage years, when his emerging sense of identity begins to create fissures at home and to inflame the latent biases of his adoptive parents. Throughout this all, Jung finds release in drawing – and the film we see is really the ultimate expression of what started as the doodles of a boy stranded between two cultures. The filmmaker tells his story using his own animation intercut with snippets of super-8 family footage, archival film, and new footage documenting his first trip to Korea. The result is an animated memoir like no other: clear-eyed and unflinching, humorous and wry, and above all, inspiring in the capacity of the human heart. This is a beautifully rendered and exceedingly moving story about the search for love, belonging, and a sense of self. 

Comment: Film contains mature subject matter and themes, as well as brief animated nudity.