
Nowhere Else
Six years ago, a woman in a mariage de raison went missing in Hamyang after a bus accident. Upon learning that she has registered her marriage with another man, her husband pays her a visit. She is unable to remember the past. The man asks her current husband to visit Okcheon with her. She recalls where she lived with the man a long time ago.
Through a broken relationship, Lee Kyeong-won's Nowhere Else tells a tale of family and trauma. The film opens with the story of a man looking for a woman he lived with a long time ago but who cannot remember her past, nor her ex-husband. By the end, she does recall and, above all, finds out why she had sealed this memory.
The minimal information transfer and slow filming style does not create distance but rather invites the spectator beautifully on this journey, discovering the protagonist's surprising truths alongside her . The silence in the film renders the audience active. Through death, Nowhere Else allows for a brief reflection on life.
Sanghoon Lee is the Artistic Director of the Busan International Short Film Festival and has worked there since 2011. Before that, he was the Chief Programmer at the Korean Film Festival in Paris, France. Lee is also the President of Gwangju Film & Image Workers Collective and has a Ph.D. in Literature.
Lee Kyeong-won
Lee Kyeong-won studied English Literature at Dankook University and Film at the Korean Academy of Film Arts. His Nowhere Else won the Grand Prix in the Korean Competition at Busan International Short Film Festival in 2022. Lee Kyeong-won has also worked as an assistant to filmmaker Lee Chang-dong.