Arirang

Well-known Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-duk fell silent after making Dream (2008). In the unique film Arirang, he aims the camera at himself: he is his own screenwriter, director, cameraman, and performer. Far from the city where for years he has lived in a primitive house, the creator resolved to offer a testimony to the public that is at times agonizingly frank. He talks about his unusual path to self-taught filmmaking, his rise to becoming the foremost representative of South Korean cinema abroad, and about the reason for his decision to leave everything and withdraw into seclusion. But the film is not just emotional outpourings of depression and doubt: much of the confession comprises questions about the meaning of creation that Kim Ki-duk the recluse puts to Kim Ki-duk the filmmaker, who responds on a monitor while a third Kim Ki-duk ironically comments on it all. This display of directorial invention, along with his color concept for the film, testify to the exceptional talents of a creator who may be a touch sentimental but who is clearly ready to abandon his solitary life and return to work. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)