I had just finished writing the script for A Distant Place when I met with the poet Park Eunji, whose poem A Truly Distant Place appears in the film. The work had just been selected for the JEONJU Cinema Project, and we were starting the main preparations for the production. As we talked about the script and the poem, I asked her what she thought ‘a truly distant place’ meant. She said she thought it was ‘somewhere unattainable.’ What is the sense of distance? Sometimes, a familiar place suddenly seems strange, or when you think you know someone well, and then you realize, “I don’t really know this person at all.” It may be that there are distances that we can never cross. How complicated the relationship is and how helpless we are in front of it.

 

Sometimes, we draw comfort and closeness from distant and awkward things. While making and screening A Distant Place, I’ve been fortunate enough to meet many people from different cities. Occasionally, I could hear who and why they settled in that city and how that made this movie resonate with them. I was so happy and moved to hear about that, but it weighed heavily on me. Among the stories I encountered after screening the film in other countries, the most frequently mentioned premise was that Korea is a country that still doesn't have any laws prohibiting discrimination. That still has weighed heavily as a source of embarrassment. Sometimes, the most distant places offer you a new perspective on the things closest to you—a perspective you can't ignore. PARK Kunyoung

Swing (2012), SILENT BOY (2014), To My River (2018)

Distance and Connection
“Why don’t we go live someplace far away?” It’s a heartbreaking line that you often encounter in narratives of LGBTQ+ people in Korea, a country where they still are forced to confront entrenched institutional homophobia. The far away place here refers less to a physical location than an alternative way of life. But physical location is not some minor matter either. The exotic scenery allows room for imagination, and everyday life with nature can help easily focus on the core of life and self. Hwacheon, a place chosen by director Park Kunyoung for the main character Jinwoo (Kang Gilwoo), allows that—away from the mad crowd. Director Jang Woojin, who contributed to A Distant Place as both a producer and actor, had provided Korean audiences with a fresh take on Gangwon Province with his films Autumn, Autumn and Winter’s Night. Along the same lines, Park also used the exoticism and spatiality of Hwacheon as the body of his film.

 

Jinwoo is an LGBTQ+ who has separated from his lover Hyunmin (Hong Kyung) and decided to go off to raise his younger sibling’s daughter Seol. He leaves Seoul for the somewhat exotic pastoral landscape of Hwacheon, enjoying a brief period of peace as he becomes part of farm owner Joong-man’s family, joining them every day for meals. As Joong-man’s mother and daughter sit down at the table with Jinwoo and Seol, the immediate impression is in line with a typical heterosexual family’s dinner. Wandering around in search of the possibility of love, Jinwoo has become a migrant, but at some point, he seems to have come to harbor a greater love for the comfort of being accepted by those around him. The most significant incident in the film—the sibling’s visit and the outing that ensues—might seem to affirm that the film’s theme is the suppression of LGBTQ+ human rights. But Jinwoo’s subsequent actions show that the real focus of A Distant Place is on the anguish that an outsider on edge feels as he struggles to connect with the world. The picturesque photograph signals no sense of awkwardness with the bucolic beauty; if anything, it seems to underline how the life of Jinwoo yearns for is not something exceptional but something profoundly universal. KIM Haery

 

Production Bomnae Films (bomnae.films@gmail.com), CHALNA (moment@chalna.kr)
Distribution GREEN NARAE MEDIA (greennaraemedia@naver.com)
International Sales M-Line Distribution (sales@mline-distribution.com)

2020 PIPFF International Feature Competition (Nominee)

2020 SIFF Best Film Award Feature Competition (Nominee)

2021 Festival du Film Coréen à Paris Audience Award (Winner)

2021 Florence Korea Film Fest Jury Prize (Independent, Winner)

2021 Buil Film Awards Best New Actor (Nominee)

2021 Outfest LA Grand Jury Award (Outstanding International Narrative Feature, Winner)

2021 NewFest Grand Jury Prize (International Narrative Feature, Winner)

2022 Wildflower Film Awards Korea Best New Actor (Winner), Best Narrative Director (Nominee)