hankyoreh

Elderly women living in Annam neighborhood of Okcheon County, North Chungcheong Province, act in a film entitled “Hard Movie.”

The film was made by some forty women in their 70s to 80s from Annam Mother School where illiterate elderly women have been taught the Korean language since 2003. Those women started making a film after their proposal of “My age 70 movie devotee” was selected by the Korea Art & Culture Education Service as a project for living culture community. Even though they belatedly learned to read the Korean language, Hangeul, they wrote the script themselves, selected locations and acted. The film directed and shot by local culture organization Child Culture Apple.

The title of the film means making a film is very hard job for the elderly and they have struggled for their lives. Their lives of deep sorrow pervaded into the movie.

An old woman starring at the movie said, “I am happy to escape from illiteracy, moreover, it is just as good as to trace back my memory and have a new experience through filmmaking.”

“I feel relieved now that I told through the film all my stories kept in my mind for a long while.”　 　

(Photo courtesy of Child Culture Apple, Story by Oh Yoon-joo)