Poetry

Director: Lee Chang-dong

2010 / 139min / 4K DCP

Mija (Yun Jung-hee) has been tasked with raising her troubled teenaged grandson, Jong-wook, while her daughter, Jong-wook’s single mother, works in far-off Busan. When her capacity as a caregiver is threatened by a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, Mija begins to study poetry composition at the local cultural center—first inspired by beauty in the natural world, then, when Jong-wook is mired in shameful scandal, inspired by new depths of disappointment and pain. Written specifically for Yun, a leading light of ’60s and ’70s South Korean cinema who gives an achingly vulnerable performance, Lee’s poignant, penetrating drama was awarded Best Screenplay at Cannes in 2010.

Part of Novel Encounters: The Films of Lee Chang-dong