Céline Roustan
A young woman heads to Korea in search of her birth mother, hoping to better understand her identity by learning more about where she comes from. Directed by Christina Yoon, Motherland sensitively chronicles the journey of a protagonist looking for answers about her origins in a country that she’s both deeply connected to yet distant from.
“When I first moved to Korea in my early 20s, it felt like I was at last coming home to a place I had only dreamt of.”
Yoon shared with us that when she moved to Korea in her early 20s, she initially felt as if she was “at last coming home to a place I had only dreamt of”. However, over time, she realized that “despite looking like everyone around me, I was an outsider”. While not the emotional core of the film, these experiences and feelings set the canvas for the narrative of Motherland, as the Korean American protagonist starts her journey in Korea.
During her time in Korea, Yoon became aware of the hundreds of thousands of adoptions that had taken place in the country, creating a global community of Korean adoptees. “I was deeply affected by their complicated feelings on alienation, identity, and family”, she confessed. Before penning the screenplay with co-writer Minkyu Kang, Yoon and her producers conducted interviews with many Korean adoptees, looking to grasp that experience from various different perspectives and angles. These conversations allowed the director and her team to craft a nuanced narrative, adding an authenticity to not only the broader story but to the character’s inner psyche as well.
Hong Kyung (L) and Tiffany Chu star in Christina Yoon’s Motherland
The quest for identity, the search for home, and the desire to understand our origins are all undeniably universal and relatable feelings. While Motherland is very specific to a certain experience, the authenticity and sincerity of the approach allows it to speak to every viewer. Giorgos Valsamis’ cinematography is not only gorgeous, it cleverly frames the protagonist in her new environment, portrays her as someone who both belongs and feels like an outsider. The images also echo Yoon’s own experience of discovering Korea for the first time, making her short very inviting for its audience and enhancing the layered emotional journey the protagonist is about to take us on.
Tiffany Chu delivers an incredible performance in the lead role, navigating the various emotions of her character with a captivating honesty. Her most powerful and grounding moments are often those where she does not speak, but still manages to communicate everything, down to the nuances of trying to restrain her feelings, so compellingly. Through her portrayal, she allows Yoon’s film to reach a certain depth and makes Motherland so emotionally potent.
Ahead of its online debut as a Vimeo Staff Pick, Motherland made its way around the festival circuit, earning multiple selections, including the 2022 Palm Springs ShortFest, and winning awards such Best Narrative Short at Provincetown, which made it eligible for consideration at the 2024 Oscars. Yoon is currently working on multiple projects, including a Korean cult thriller feature and various pilots.