Program Note
The Story of Our Home is based on ‘The Maiden Mother’, the true story of 20-year-old Jang Jong-hwa who brings up 7 orphans in North Korea, one of the most famous North Korean films. Ri Jong-a finds three recently orphaned siblings and looks after them. Un-jong, the oldest of the siblings, refuses all the neighbors’ help but gradually accepts Jong-a’s efforts. The film movingly depicts Ri Jong-a’s passionate vision of the girl who tries to keep the siblings together, and the story of their home as a new family. With some propagandistic settings and scenes in the latter stages, The Story of Our Home has been criticized for evading the subject of human rights in North Korea, becoming a major global issue at the time, despite the film being based on a true story. It was shown at the Moscow Film Festival last year, but this is the first time for this film to be introduced officially in Korea. It won Best Film at the 15th Pyeongyang Film Festival in 2016. (MO Eun-young)