PROGRAM NOTE
A flower gifted 36 years ago became a lifelong love. Life Unrehearsed begins with a photo of 70-year-old retiree Lee Soohyun and Kim Insun holding hands. They have been living together in Berlin, Germany, and the film reflects on their life journey. It begins with a story in their 20s when they settled in the unfamiliar land of Germany and unfolds into the journey they advocate for gender equality and the rights of immigrants and minorities. Soohyun, a nurse, moved to Germany from South Korea in the 1970s and fell in love at first sight with Insun, whom she met at the Korean female Christian association camp in 1986. Insun came to Germany as a guest by her mother, who left her home country after a divorce, then married a Korean miner who worked in Germany. The flowers offered by Soohyun unexpectedly moved Insun's heart. Beyond the opposition of the Korean community and Christian faith, Insun chose a different form of love she never thought of before and divorced her husband. Later, she became an activist. She graduated from a theological seminary to become a pastor and founded a hospice organization for local immigrants in Germany together with Soohyun. The film also includes an episode in which Insun visits Seoul Queer Culture Festival, where she attracts attention as a "queer grandmother." Her concerns as a person of faith and a queer individual naturally accompany their love of old age and the sudden arrival of a serious illness. Their love and life are a struggle against a rigid society. The director, who delicately explored the lives on the margins in various short films, presents her debut feature documentary Life Unrehearsed after a short film On the Boundary (2019), which shed light on Kim Insun as the main character. [NA Wonjeong]