Regards comparés: Corées, déjouer les destinins - Journeys of Korean women

Since 2012, Inalco has been a partner of the Jean Rouch Festival, screening films from the Regards comparés selection in the auditorium. This year, screenings will be held from November 25 to 28 on the theme of Korea. All screenings will be followed by a debate with filmmakers and experts.
Une femme qui porte une casquette et une parka range une écharpe dans sa valise
"Madame B., histoire d'une nord-coréenne" de YUN Jero © Zorba Production‎

Korean women

1:30pm - 4pm

  • Shadow Flowers, South Korea | 2019 | 109 min | vosta
    A film by: YI Seung-Jun (South Korea)
    Production: Bluebird Pictures
    Distribution: Taskovski Films (UK)

A North Korean housewife was forced to come to South Korea and became a citizen against her will. After seven years of struggle, futile attempts to return illegally and to gain political asylum at the Vietnamese embassy, Ryun-hee KIM continues her fight not to become, as she fears, a shadow among her family back in Pyongyang.

Discussion in the presence of KIM Hui-yeon, sociologist and lecturer at Inalco, Department of Korean Studies and Chloé Paberz, anthropologist and director of the Department of Korean Studies at Inalco.

Coffee and tea break - 30 minutes

4:30pm - 6:15pm

  • Madame B., histoire d'une nord-coréenne, France | 2016 | 71 min | vostf
    A film by : YUN Jero (South Korea)
    Production and distribution : Zorba Production (France) - info@zorba-group.com

When she leaves North Korea illegally, Madame B. is sold to a Chinese peasant by her smugglers. Now a smuggler in her own right, she embarks on a battle to find her children, which takes her all the way to South Korea. But the secret services get involved...

Discussion with Chloé Paberz, anthropologist and director of the Korean Studies Department at Inalco, Stéphane Thévenet, lecturer in the Korean Studies Department at Inalco and Guillaume De La Boulaue, co-founder of Zorba Production.

15-minute break

6:30pm - 8:30pm

  • Hanchangnai seonnyeonim | Burnt Flower, South Korea | 2021 | 83 min | vosta
    A film by: WON Ho-Yeon (South Korea)
    Production and distribution: KIM Sun-Young, Bigfish Media (South Korea)

LIM Seonn-Yeo is 68 years old and has never left her small mountain village far from everything. Since the death of her husband, she has only one wish: to learn to read and write. Seonn-Yeo is illiterate. Although the old lady has no regrets about the life she has led - ignorant people have no dreams, she says - she does feel ready to change her situation. Having graduated, she bids farewell to her cow and the house she lives in with her husband.

Discussion with Nathalie Luca, anthropologist and president of the Ethnographic Film Committee and Stéphane Thévenet, lecturer in the Korean Studies Department at Inalco.