By Rex Baylon
As the Berlin International Film Festival closes its doors
for another year Korean cinema was not completely left out of the loop, even if
no films from South Korea made it into the main festival competition. Two
documentaries A Dream of Iron and Non Fiction Diary both took home a
NETPAC Prize for Best Asian Film and Sprout
was awarded the Crystal Bear for Best Short in the Generation Kplus section.
Having both premiered at last year’s Busan International
Film Festival (BIFF) Non Fiction Diary,
a harrowing documentary about South Korea in the early 1990s when true
democracy was still in its infancy, won
the Mecenat award for Best Documentary and Sprout,
a charming tale of a little girl’s quest to get some bean sprouts for her
grandfather’s funerary rites, received
a special mention for the Sonje Award. While A Dream of Iron, a stylishly done picture about the POSCO
steelmaking factory in Pohang, had its world premier at this year’s Berlinale
Forum section.
Last year, other South Korean films like Cheong, Shin Su-won’s Pluto (2012), Hong Sang-soo’s Nobody’s Daughter Haewon have all
received awards and accolades at the Berlin Film Festival and this year
continues the trend, proving that South Korea’s indie film scene is still going
strong.
Source:
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