FILM SCREENINGS

Treeless Mountain

2008. USA/South Korea. Directed by So Yong Kim. Unable to cope with the responsibility of raising her children alone, a woman parks six-year-old Jin and her younger sister Bin with her alcoholic older sister while she goes off to find her estranged husband. "Big Aunt" isn't a bad woman, she's just completely self-centered. But when a letter arrives saying that the mother won't be back for a while, Big Aunt takes the girls to live with their grandparents far off in the countryside. Few recent films have been less sentimental yet more perceptive of childhood experience. Ably aided by cinematographer Anne Misawa, director So Yong Kim (In Between Days) effectively brings us into the world of her two young subjects, allowing us to feel their fear and pain while also sharing moments of joy and extraordinary resilience as they learn to adapt to whatever comes their way. An Oscilloscope Pictures release. 89 min.