YI Jiin
Young-jin, a college student, visits her aunt after eleven years of estrangement to film a documentary about her deceased mother. Her aunt, however, refuses to say anything. When the project comes to a standstill due to a lack of interview subjects, Young-jin turns to the person closest to her. Based on an unfinished documentary the director had been making about her own family, this film adopts a fictional form to bring that personal project to completion.
I wanted to portray the process of confronting one's own emotions, along with the thirst for truths that remain forever unknown, and the sense of alienation in carrying on with life as if nothing had happened after someone close takes their own life.
For the longest time, I have clung to the irretrievable past when my mom was still alive. Who she was, what she loved, and how she felt about me—these are questions that can no longer be answered. Consumed by a frustration I could not come to terms with, I found myself treading carefully around the remaining members of my family. This film is my attempt to stop lingering in longing and instead move closer to what I have been seeking.
Born in 1999, Yi Jiin studied film at Chung-Ang university. Her short film The Remains was completed based on an unfinished documentary film she had been making about her own family.