South Korea

“Curiously engaging and wickedly twisted tale of crime and punishment...recalls the like-minded outlook of No Country For Old Men.” —Indiewire. Winner of the Golden Lion at the 2012 Venice Film Festival, Pieta is the acclaimed film from the celebrated and controversial Korean director Kim Ki-Duk (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... And Spring; 3-Iron). In this intense and haunting story, a brutal loan shark mercilessly collecting debts meets a mysterious person who asks him to leave his violent life behind.

Jung, a 42-year-old cartoonist, is one of the many adopted Koreans spread around the world who elect to perform a reconciliatory trip to their country of birth. Jung decided to return to South Korea in order to breathe the air of his home country, tread the land of his ancestors, and maybe find traces of his biological mother. Shot as a documentary, this trip leads Jung to recall – through animation – the child he once was and the winding path that made him grow up.