MINARI

Arkansas in the 1980s. Jacob Yi (Steven Yeun) has brought his family from California to a trailer on a plot of land to grow Korean vegetables there. His wife Monica (Han Ye-ri) thinks it is a mistake; money is tight, the parents earn it sexing chicks at a hatchery, and their young son David has a heart condition. Then grandmother Soon-ja (Youn Yuh-jung) arrives from Korea to look after the children – she swears, plays cards, plants minari by the creek, and is nothing like the grandmother David had imagined. In “Minari” (USA 2020), Lee Isaac Chung draws on his own memories to tell of a family trying to put down roots on foreign ground.

The film keeps to the small things: quarrels in the trailer, the local church, water that does not go far enough. At the Sundance Film Festival 2020, “Minari” won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award; six Oscar nominations followed, and Youn Yuh-jung received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. The film was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2020.

Shown at the 2020 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2020 · Film Archive