TREELESS MOUNTAIN

Last summer I watched a great little film called IN BETWEEN DAYS, a quiet and dreamy film about the lonely existence of a young Korean girl transplanted to North America, trying not to get swallowed by a culture she struggles to understand. The filmmaker was So Yong Kim, a Brooklyn based filmmaker, originally transplanted from Korea herself.

I admired the unsentimental perspective of her film, the simple construction, and Kim's unwillingness to fall back on a predictable "coming of age" structure. I am now greatly looking forward to her new feature TREELESS MOUNTAIN. The new film was produced by Lars Knudsen and Jay Van Hoy, who also did Kelly Reichardt's OLD JOY, Cam Archer's WILD TIGERS I HAVE KNOWN, and Aaron Katz's upcoming COLD WEATHER.

When their mother needs to leave in order to find their stranged father, seven year-old Jin and her younger sister, Bin, are left to live with their Big Aunt for the summer. With only a small piggy bank and their mother's promise to return when it is full, the two young girls are forced to acclimate to changes in their family life. Counting the days, and the coins, the two bright-eyed young girls eagerly anticipate their mother's homecoming. But when the bank fills up, and with their mother still not back, Big Aunt decides that she can no longer tend to the children. Taken to live on their grandparent's farm, it is here that Jin comes to learn the importance of family bonds in this beautiful, meditative, and thought-provoking second feature from So Yong Kim, the acclaimed director of IN BETWEEN DAYS.

I doubt this will be one to miss, so make sure you check it out when it comes to your town:

New York, NY – Film Forum – 4/22/09
Los Angeles, CA – Music Hall; M Park – 5/8/09
San Francisco, CA – Landmark Theatres – 5/15/09
Dallas, TX – Angelika – 5/15/09
San Diego – Gaslamp – 5/29/09
Rochester, NY – George Eastman House – 5/30/09
Atlanta, GA – Regal Tara – 6/5/09
Kahala, HI – City Cinemas – 6/5/09
Boston, MA – Kendall Square – 6/19/09
Seattle, WA – NW Film Forum – 6/26/09