Pieta

Year: 2012
Country: SOUTH KOREA
Run Time: 104 minutes

Visionary director Kim Ki-duk takes us on a savage and disturbing journey into the heart of darkness. A ruthless loan shark calmly extracts brutal penalties from clients unable to pay. He cripples his pleading victims in front of their families as casually as he kills a chicken for dinner. After one of these encounters, a strange woman follows him home. She claims to be his mother who abandoned him over 30 years ago and is determined to make amends, blaming herself for his violent lifestyle. What appears to be a journey of redemption and reconcilliation, in the hands of Kim Ki-duk becomes something darker and unexpected. As the relationship between mother and son grows more intense and unpredictable, redemption and revenge take on entirely new dimensions. Filmed in a beautifully dark palate, Kim Ki-duk delivers a cinematic jolt to the senses that will have audiences squirming in their seats and entirely under its grim spell. PIETA travels a startling and original labyrinth and is bound to be one of the most talked-about films of the Festival. (In Korean with subtitles) – C.R.

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