About the film

In July 1989, budding Argentinian documentary filmmaker José Luis García attended the last-ever USSR-sponsored international festival for communist youth in North Korea to gather footage of the proceedings. There, he became entranced by young student Lim Su-kyung, a passionate advocate for Korean reunification who captured the public's imagination by promising to walk back home to South Korea, crossing the frontier at the heavily militarized Pyongyang border checkpoint where soldiers on each side face each other in a perpetual standoff. It was a bold, defiant and dangerous feat — and one that Lim amazingly pulled off. Now, more than twenty years after his visit to North Korea, García decides to track down Lim and discover what happened to the woman once dubbed "The Flower of Reunification" — and to find a way to finish his film.

The Girl from the South follows García as he embarks on his quest, having contacted Lim by email to request an interview. Perplexed by and a little suspicious of the proposition, Lim nonetheless agrees and invites García to South Korea. Travelling to Seoul with his Argentine-Korean translator Alejandro, García finally comes face to face with Lim, whom he has never forgotten — though much has happened to the idealistic young woman of 1989. Lim's life has since been touched by tragedy, and the experiences and convictions by which she now defines herself are far removed from those of her student days.

Wybrane nagrody i festiwale /Selected festivals and awards: 2012 – MFF Toronto / Toronto IFF, 2012 – MFF Rio de Janeiro / Rio de Janeiro IFF, 2012 – MFF Montreal / Montreal IFF, 2012 – MFFD Jihlava / Jihlava IFFD, 2012 – CPH:DOX Kopenhaga / CPH:DOX Copenhagen