In 1989, budding filmmaker José Luis García visited North Korea to take part in a student festival in Pyongyang. While he was there, peace activist Lim Sukyung revolutionised the event by announcing that she would cross the border back to South Korea by foot.
This bold and subversive gesture made an everlasting impression on the young Garcia, and twenty years later he has never stopped thinking about the woman known as the ‘Flower of Reunification’. In this fascinating documentary, Garcia tracks Lim down in South Korea, hoping to discover exactly what occurred at the border all those years ago.
Lim proves difficult to pin down, and the film captures awkward situations and miscommunications, becoming a piece that is both about discovery and the filmmaking process itself. The combination of Garcia’s voice-over, the use of footage he captured at the time on VHS and his unfiltered present day struggles create an intimate and personal glimpse of a man looking for answers to lifelong questions.
The Girl from the South has featured at festivals across the globe, and the political climate in the region makes this documentary interesting as it is timely.
Not screening in Byron Bay.