Winner, Best Screenplay, Cannes Film Festival 2010
Mija, a sixty-something woman, makes a living by cleaning house for an elderly man. Faced with the discovery of a monstrous crime involving her sullen adolescent grandson, it is Mija’s poetry class at a local cultural center that gives her strength to transcend the shame and violence. A masterful study of the subtle empowerment—and moral compass—of an indefatigable older woman. South Korea, 2010, 139 minutes, Korean with English subtitles
“A quietly devastating, humanistic work. Ms. Yun’s performance is a tour de force of emotional complexity that builds through restraint and…earns rather than demands your attention. Like this subtle, transfixing film, she draws you in. . . .An extraordinary film of human empathy.”
– Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
“This is a small film. It is also a great one. ‘Great’ is a word I don’t use often. . . May well be the film of the year.”
– Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
“Sometimes you don’t fully appreciate what a movie is doing to your heart until it’s been shattered.” –Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
