7:30 on Wednesday, March 6th
Room 137, Isenberg School of Management
UMass Amherst
No Winter Holidays
(2023, Rajan Kathet and Sunir Pandey, Nepal, 79 min, in Nepali w/ English subtitles)
A poetic and intimate portrait of two lifelong rivals, who are forced to share an empty village during the dead of winter. What would you do if your entire village abandoned you for a whole, freezing winter, with no companionship save for the presence of your dead husband’s other wife? Set amidst the high altitude of the Nepalese Himalayas, No Winter Holidays records life for Ratima and Kalima as they work to look after their village during a harsh and unforgiving season. Both in their seventies, they gradually come to accept each other’s presence, aware that surviving in this climate depends on their relying on each other. Stunningly shot, capturing the full magnificence of the mountain landscape while never losing focus on its subjects, Rajan Kathet and Sunir Pandey’s film is a fascinating portrait of rivalry, loneliness, old age, and womanhood.
A Mother Youngsoon
(2022, Lee Chang-jun, South Korea, 85 min, in Korean w/ English subtitles)
Lee Chang-jun’s A Mother Youngsoon brings us close to the daily life of a mother who defected from North Korea with the younger of her two sons. Youngsoon must navigate the pitfalls and vicissitudes of life in South Korea as she strives to secure a better future for her son and yearns for the other son she could not bring with her. Lee’s documentary offers a nuanced portrait of the dreams and hardships, as well as the social stigma, that defectors face in South Korea. The evening continues with a screening of No Winter Holidays. Rajan Kathet and Sunir Pandey’s film transports us to the Nepali highlands in the grip of winter, where two aging women, Ratima and Kalima, remain in their village after all their neighbors migrate to warmer lands for the season. As wives to the same husband before his death, these former rivals must now rely on one another to manage daily life in their snowbound world.
Film Screening
Wednesday, March 6th
Free and open to the public
Introduction by Irhe Sohn (Professor at Smith College with a specializion in modern Korea, with specific interests in the history of film and media.)
Irhe Sohn
Irhe Sohn, professor at Smith College, specializes in modern Korea, with specific interests in the history of film and media. His research and teaching evolve around the problem of marginality in Korean film history, such as minority audiences, vulgar genre and filmmaking practices largely categorized as failure. Currently, he is writing a book investigating the formation of colonial Korean cinema during the height of Japanese imperialism. Other research projects include South Korean popular films in the 1970s, the history of special effect films, and East Asian film and media theories. He teaches courses on Korean cinema, popular culture, literature and language.