A Brand New Life

Director: Ouni Lecomte

2009 / 92min / DCP

Lecomte’s feature debut, drawing from her own biography, focuses on a nine-year-old girl, Jin-hee (Kim Sae-ron, giving one of the finest performances by a child actor in recent memory), whose father hands her over to a Catholic orphanage in Seoul before his impending remarriage, forcing her to wrestle with the agony of abandonment in alien and hostile surroundings. Produced and co-written by Lee Chang-dong, the film boasts a simple story, told with feeling and clarity, and was rightly honored with the Best Asian Film Award at the 22nd Tokyo International Film Festival.