"The Silence" Park Soo-nam

In the organizer's words:

This documentary offers a valuable, intimate account of the group of women who broke half a century of silence in the 1990s to reveal themselves as former "comfort women" who were victims of the Imperial Japanese Army. In Chung-cheongbuk-do, Ms. Lee Ok-sun lives alone and visits a Buddhist temple every day. At the age of 17, she was taken to northern Manchuria to serve in the Japanese military's "comfort station". In 1994, Lee Ok-sun joined forces with 14 other victims to break the silence and demand an apology and compensation from the Japanese government. The group of victims traveled to Japan and sought direct talks with the government. Determined to restore their dignity and honor, the halmonis ("grandmothers") traveled to Japan several times to hold direct talks, but also to publicly share their experiences throughout Japan. Park Soo-nam, a second-generation Zainichi Korean (Japanese-born descendant of Korean immigrants from the colonial era), accompanied the group to document their "han" (Korean for resentment, anger, but also demand for justice). 20 years later, after many of the protagonists of the struggle have passed away, the question arises as to what extent the 2015 agreement between Japan and Korea represents a solution for the individual victims. The documentary attempts to pass on the "silence" of these living witnesses by interweaving episodes from Lee's life with documentary footage of the struggle taken by the filmmaker in the 1990s when she closely followed the struggle.

Korean/Japanese with German subtitles

Director: Park Soo-nam

Korea, Japan / 2017 / Color / 117 min.

Cinematography: Otsu Koshiro, Han Joong, Park Maeui

Producer, editor: Park Maeui

This event is made possible by the Japan Women's Initiative.

Price information:

Admission on a donation basis